Parents More Afraid of Violent Video Games?

[MakGonz]

http://videogames.yahoo.com/events/p...ack-10/1241359

Well if parents raised their kids right they/we wouldn't have this problem. I personally grew up playing violent video games such as Wolfenstein 3D and Duke Nukem. I turned out ok. I don't go around robbing people and shooting people. It's a flipping video game and strictly entertainment.I'm sick and tired of lazy parents.


EDIT: also found

Survey: Parents fear in-game sex, real life drugs
By Tim Conneally, BetaNews
August 11, 2008, 4:14 PM

An informal poll conducted by What They Play, a sort of Rotten Tomatoes site for video games, recently pointed to parents' areas of concern in video game content.

The fist poll, conducted on April 4-10 of this year, asked participants to select from a list of choices which item would they find most offensive in a video game. The responses were: a man and woman having sex (37%); two men kissing (27%); a graphically severed head (25%); and multiple use of the F-word (9%). This survey had 1,266 participants.

The site's second poll, which took place in the first week of August, asked more than 1,600 parents what they would be most concerned about their 17-year old child doing at a sleepover: smoking marijuana (49%) playing the video game Grand Theft Auto (19%), watching pornography (16%) and drinking beer (14%).

While these findings do not represent any widespread departure from the notion that violence in video games is the source of violent behavior in their players, it does illustrate the controversy still associated with sex in games. Were it not for the 2005 controversy surrounding the "Hot Coffee" scene in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the game's violence may never have attained the level of discussion it has.

Interestingly, in-game drug use was not listed as a concern for parents, despite being their primary real-life concern, and despite the recent controversy over Fallout 3 in Australia, for its inclusion of morphine as a health recovery item. The game by Bethesda will reportedly be released there, but only after all references to the drug have been removed.

Source

[Cayman]

Quite surprising that parents are more worried about GTA than drinking beer.

[SSJ Vegito]

Well my mom was never worried about me playing a violent video game cause she knows I can handle it unlike certain other people who thinks games are reality at times.well i guess being mario in real life isn't so bad look at this guy but on the other hand gross

[c.Hood]

I think it really ridiculous what some parents think of games.
A lot of parents will get hypnotized by all the media and news surrounding how a video game made a man murder someone.

IT IS NOT THE VIDEO GAME THAT MADE HIM DO IT!
It is the fact that the man was physco!

I really do not understand, what is so hard to fathom about that!

[SilverScorpio17]

I think playing violent video games should be alright as long as you're not obsessed with them. And as long as you're mature enough to know that it's just a game, and stuff like that shouldn't be done in real life. I don't know if younger kids could handle it though, some of them have a tendency to role-play. Personally, I don't play games like that though. I'm certain that if I was a parent, I would be more concerned with what my kids do in real life, not what they see/do in a video game. Sure, I'd be worried if they were playing Grand Theft Auto or other games like that, but that wouldn't freak me out like other stuff would.

And I don't believe how well the parents raised their kid has to do with any of it--they can teach their child morals and that certain things are wrong, but they can't ever force their kid to do anything. You can't force anyone to think like you want them to, either.

As for the poll/survey, it doesn't really state the methods that they used, so there's the possibility of a lot of bias. Which would make the results a little inaccurate, or at least not representative of the whole population.

[deax101]

i think the parents have more of a problem of them making theese things into a game its not that they dont want their children to know about theese things (sex, drugs, violence, etc). I am 13 and like to think my parents have brought me up well by not letting me play games like gta, i understand that theese things are going on but i shouldnt be playing a game that puts me in the shoes of someone doing it. i also think some parents are just irresponsible about what they let their children see, i know 9 year olds who are playing gta and watching 18 rated movies and it makes me feel sorry for the child being exposed to such things when there so young, i mean the ratings are there for a reason

[SSJ Vegito]

Lol my mom said so wouldn't buy me Gta4 next day I got it.I told her its the censored version.

[Wes]

nah i dont thik they r

[TDBlue]

Lol. As soon as my mother heard about GTAIV she ran to my room and said, "You are not getting it!" and my only system was a Wii! I have a 360 now, but I never even wanted that game.

Parents need to know if they're children are adult enough for these games. If not, then they should know exactly who they're children friends are, if they're so worried.

[squirtleofdoom]

I read this poll on Yahoo yesterday.
This is completely ridiculous.

From my point of view, I would rather have my kids smoke pot or play GTA than drink (unsupervised) or worse yet, watch porn unsupervised. There is some f**cked up stuff on the internet, and it's way more impressionable to kids than a stupid videogame. Granted, none of these things should happen without you talking to your kids first, but that's the thing...parents don't talk or interact with their kids. They're ashamed about sex, so they won't talk to their kids about pornography. They don't want to condone drinking or marijuana use, so they won't regulate it and talk about safety limits (because let's face it, most underage kids drink, and they're less likely to overdo it if their parents discuss it with them). And they won't sit down and discuss violence in videogames with their kids.

I blame the parents for looking the other way. Everyone knows these options exist, but they don't TEACH their kids.

Anyway, about that other poll, sex and TWO MEN KISSING (WTF!) are more offensive than a SEVERED HEAD!?
Once again, sex is more dangerous than violence to the majority of Americans, and THAT scares me...

[The Nartist]

AARRGG
i can't stand parents who give there kids violant video games , then blame the video game creators.
YOU BOUGHT IT FOR THEM! thats what the ESRB is for, for god's sake.

[Midnight]

parents lesson to the news to much, it over exagerates the " extra violent " games that they rarely talk about and im no allowed 2 get get games with excessive f's in it beacause i have christian parents they dont even play the game and they say it now a "heavnly game" it really sucks