New California video gaming rules

[DontWorryBeHappy]

California may be a beautiful, warm, friendly place but it's things like this that make me glad I don't live there. Contrary to what many people seem to think, people of my age are not likely to go and kill someone because they saw it in a film/game. I may have lost faith in my peers being nice people but I know that they can make the distinction between reality and fiction.

[myrmaad]

California may be a beautiful, warm, friendly place but it's things like this that make me glad I don't live there. Contrary to what many people seem to think, people of my age are not likely to go and kill someone because they saw it in a film/game. I may have lost faith in my peers being nice people but I know that they can make the distinction between reality and fiction.

 

And that has nothing at all to do with why I would prefer my kid did not play with, for example, Grand Theft Auto before the age of 17. Certainly not a 7.

[Vagrant0]

California may be a beautiful, warm, friendly place but it's things like this that make me glad I don't live there. Contrary to what many people seem to think, people of my age are not likely to go and kill someone because they saw it in a film/game. I may have lost faith in my peers being nice people but I know that they can make the distinction between reality and fiction.

Trust me, California has more problems than this... I have yet to meet someone who has spent more than 3 years living in California, any part of California, who wasn't a little coo-coo. This goes for both online and in real life. It's almost like they have their own definition of reality over there. But in all fairness, several other states have tried to do stuff like this over the years. The issue is not simply because people in California are committing videogame inspired crimes more frequently than other states, but rather because activism is so rampant in that part of the country.

[sumoftwosins]

Normally I would disagree with California since they have some very stupid laws that defy common sense... cough... gun control.... cough.

 

However, I think parents should have a direct involvement in the selection of video games. If there parent wants to buy it for them, that's fine. It at least allows them to consider what is taking place. There are certain things I don't want my kids viewing now.

 

Bottom line is Parents need to be Parents.

[Vagrant0]

Bottom line is Parents need to be Parents.

True on many levels, however people often have problems with the definition or the effort required. Most people have enough trouble just keeping their own lives together to be bothered with trying to watch what their kids are doing, and then there are those who take watching their kids to various extremes.

 

They should really make people take a class and get certified before they are allowed to have children (health class in highschool doesn't count). But that's another, more complicated issue.

[rondivu]

Bottom line is Parents need to be Parents.

They should really make people take a class and get certified before they are allowed to have children (health class in highschool doesn't count). But that's another, more complicated issue.

I seriously think this would be beneficial to everyone... or at least parents should have a small seminar on educating them to video games in general. I'm old enough to get married and have kids (not ready yet though, lol) and I would encourage my own peers to get educated. This way there would be better communication between kids and adults when it involves Games... too bad I'm not an educator.

[Vagrant0]

Bottom line is Parents need to be Parents.

They should really make people take a class and get certified before they are allowed to have children (health class in highschool doesn't count). But that's another, more complicated issue.

I seriously think this would be beneficial to everyone... or at least parents should have a small seminar on educating them to video games in general. I'm old enough to get married and have kids (not ready yet though, lol) and I would encourage my own peers to get educated. This way there would be better communication between kids and adults when it involves Games... too bad I'm not an educator.

I was actually talking in the more general sense.

 

Realistically, this issue of parents not knowing about videogames will only be around for another 5-6 years. By then, the generation which did not grow up playing violent games will be done with their teenage children, or have already had 1 to 3 kids who have already gone through that 12-18 year old range where this becomes a question. The coming generation, those between 21 and 32 are already pretty knowledgeable about games, have grown up through the glory days of violent games in the 90s, played GTA3 to excess, and have their own opinions on videogame violence. The generation after that would be even more so...

 

To put things in perspective, look at it in comparison to how parents in the 50's were speaking out against the evils of listening to Buddy Holly and Elvis, or how 30 years later there were conferences about the evils of "hard rock" making children turn to "destructive" behavior. These days, these arguments are seen as extremely misguided and misinformed. These actions speak more about the ever-present divide between a parent and their teenager, and rather than accept that teenagers may simply be prone to irrational behavior, or behavior which might disrespect authority as a means of trying to figure out where they fit in to the world, parents blame whatever form of media they can on the "decay of moral values". In 5 years, the group of people with teenagers will have had more experiences with videogames, so will be less likely to cite them as a reason for any problem. Instead, they will probably blame something else as the cause.

 

In truth, ALL children are irrational, chaotic beings, who only occasionally have moments of composure. One need to only visit their local mall to see children who are 4-8 years old who are screaming at their parents, hitting their parents, whining, crying, breaking things purposely, and all around being total hellions. The only difference is that it is harder to dismiss this behavior as being because of violent videogamese since most in those ages aren't where they can really play games yet, and likely aren't able to make the connections between acts on a game and acts in real life since the characters they are playing are adults, who do things that they don't understand. It's fairly easy for a 13 year old to understand the concept of taking a baseball bat and beating the bejesus out of someone to steal their wallet... Not so easy for your normal 7 year old. Attribute that however you want, but somewhere in those 6 years, the understanding of violence as a means of results sets in. Evolutionary psychologists would say that this is part of a natural process by which the child assumes new capacities in order to associate with adult society and to defend themselves since they are less likely to have a parent around to keep them safe. Sociologists would attribute this to the child having more experience of the world, and realizing that as they get older, they will be less likely to be able to use the appearance of being harmless and innocent as a way of dealing with conflict, so they develop strategies and methods which are the exact opposite as a means of catching the other party off guard and gaining an advantage. Afterall, a person can only use tears as a means of getting what they want for so long. We like to think of kids as innocent and pure, but really all they do is manipulate others to do what they want from day 1. This is how verbal skills get developed, as their wants increase, they need some way of communicating these different wants.

[nosisab]

Across all the years I can count myself as a aware and conscious being I have seen a big deal of sociopath/psychopath cases related in the media. Almost ever the troubles can be traced down to home environment. And often repression and/or extremism are present. The omission is in the extremism case too.

 

People is more and more dependent on some other's opinion to make their 'own' judgment. And history tell us censorship almost ever falls on inept hands, biased mindset and so on. Ironically prejudice free people will advise common sense, not only about a movie, a game... but with anything in general.

 

Don't take me wrong, I'm not saying some kind of supervision is off place. To such supervision, mechanisms are already in vigor. They just must be enforced someway or left to parental discretion (and if the parents have their own problems and can't care for their sons... well, they can't blame someone or something, they are just lacking. Sorry but so the things are).

 

As conclusion I'll relate one of mines own experiences, since self experiences are the things we know more about the backgrounds:

 

One day I saw my son (yet a child at that time) playing Road Hash and saw him jostling the bike over a crippled old woman. So I asked him why did he such a thing. because tis fun, he answered. I asked again: have you fun with this?

 

He did not answer this second time. Sometime afterward, casually I saw him playing the same game and he was carefully managing to avoid the pedestrians. So I approached and did ask why he was risking a crash to do so. Why? this way is really better... and harder, was the answer.

 

Well, I must say he is much better playing war games than me. He is good in taking down the foes without being shoot himself.

[PureSnipe]

-Parents and people in general want to blame something when a kid goes to school and starts shooting his friends and teachers. That is the fault of the PARENTS, not the fault of games or movies/tv series. Any half-decent parent would notice if their kid has a 9mm Beretta under his/her pillow, a 9mm SMG in his/her closet not to even speak of the behavioral changes that occur when someone is planning to take a gun and aim it at innocent people... I may sound harsh, but that's the reality. There's no way in hell anyone wouldn't notice such things, unless they were blatantly ignorant or didn't care about what their kid was doing. I'm not going to go into further discussion regarding that, but I've got pretty damn solid sources and a fair amount arguments to back this up.(If a moderator finds this paragraph too offending to some, or going into a too touchy subject, I won't have any objections if you want to remove it. My opinion will stay the same, but non-public.)

 

 

And technically speaking, just because someone is 18 doesn't necessarily mean that they are particularly capable of determining fantasy over reality. One need only look at the number of adults who claimed GTA inspired crimes to recognize that. The unfortunate truth, that few want to consider, is that there just might be people who are looking for something, other than themselves, to explain their behavior. They blame videogames for violence because everyone else seems to, just like how heavy metal was blamed for criminal behavior back in the 80s.

Elraine: That's not normal? What? I'm 17 and I sleep with a Kimber .45 by the pillow, have a Benelli 12 gauge tactical shotgun in the closet, and a long-range AR-15 beside my desk.

 

Vagrant: You hit that spot-on. I'm one of the most stable people, emotionally, of anyone you'd ever meet. As I type this, I'm listening to Lamb of God and have Gears of War 2 paused on the 360. As I put in another post, I used to play SWG. I almost made a 35 year old man have an anneruism(sp) because he could not, whatsoever with any trick he pulled, beat me. Made him rage quit the game and he didn't sign back on for a week. This is a simple T rated game too. The problem is parents that don't at least care to check on their kids. If what I'm about to say is out of line, someone let me know and I'll remove it:

Perfect evidence of that was the fact that with Columbine, the police went through the kid's rooms and found detailed drawings and plans as to what they were going to do. Any decent parent would have seen that and sent the kid to counseling.

[exanimis]

Being older than most of your parents, I suppose I see thing differently than the majority of people on this forum. People will always look for an exterior cause, and excuse. It's hard to admit that you are wrong and so they will always look for someone or something to blame. No one ever says, "My child is bad because I am a lousy parent." Why should we when we can blame something like video games? I don't think that any one thing is to blame, it is the culmination of events that has led us to where we are now.

 

Years ago if two people on TV were married they could not be shown in the same bed on the show. Look at reruns of shows like I Love Lucy, the married couples slept in separate beds. The first couple to share a bed on TV was actually Fred and Wilma Flintstone. In the eighties, sex in the movies grew exponentially but that was in theaters where the ratings were enforced not only by caring parents but also the theater management. With the invention of video (VHS, DVD Blue Ray , etc ) Sex has moved into our homes. What was shown in X rated movie houses in the seventies can now be rented on DVD with a rating of R or less. What you see as pornographic today will be the norm when you are a grandparent.

 

I come from a time when sex in songs was covered in cryptic lyrics

 

If there's a bustle in your hedge row

don't be alarmed now

it's just a a spring clean

for the may queen

 

That is the way Led Zeppelin described having sex in the song Stairway to heaven . Today"s music has lyrics like "shake that ass" and it isn't considered offensive.

 

I remember the first time Gilda Radner called Jane Curtain a female dog on Saturday night live. That word had never been said on TV before and the show was almost canceled. Today that word is in the sitcoms that fill so much space on the networks.

 

If you watch the old Dracula movies with Bella Lugosi you can see something strange, Dracula never bit anyone. It was considered too violent to show. In the 20's when Lon Cheney playing the Phantom of the Opera, had his mask removed, grown men in the audience fainted. Today not even four year olds would be scared and most of us laugh at the scene. We've all seen the exploding heads, decapitations and the horrid things that Hollywood can do in movies like Saw.

 

I don't believe that you can blame any one thing for the problems in our society. Things change, they always will. One day the things that you find shocking or vulgar now will be as normal as seeing a for sale sign. On that day you will listen to music, watch movies and play games and think, What has this world come to?