Do you let your choldren play video games?

This is for those have had, or plan to have children.

Since we guys here know the effect of Video Games on human mind and behavior, will you let your children play them?

Or, how will you choose the games?

However, I don't think this is what we can take full control, I used to have a GameBoy and NES since in elementary school, but I actually don't want my children to play video game too early and I won't let them touch MMO games till they have their own jobs....

parental controll would have to be a must
if you dont mind giving little timmy GTA4 when it comes out dont be to hard on him but yourself when/if he starts 'acting up' or worse still 'acting out' after playing it for hours on end

i was in game thrusday and overheard the sales guy saying what you could do in gta4 and why they REALLY shouldnt buy it for their kid "... its got an 18 certificate for a reason same with movies"

i used to watch 18 rated horror movies when i was a kid which kinda gets my goat that what was 18 then is still 18 now yet something worse gets a 15 (afaik the bbfc only issue recerts if any changes are made so oppinions may change but the ratiing stays the same)
yet my parents never stuck me infront of a blue movie to keep me quiet

i remember wanting to buy my dad repo man for his birthday (which was just before christmas) and it was 18 iir and i was 16 at the most
i had seen the movie alot as we taped it off tv but if we got the film it meant we had one more blank tape to use (not that we were short on them) so i didnt even notice i was well under age to buy it (the sales girl did and rightfully refused the sale) so i got my mum to buy it instead ;)

I don't have any children but if I did I'd let them play video games. I'd prefer them to read books though.

We got a 2600 when it first came out for our kids. Back then we didn't have to worry about such things as content. The only concern was the time spent playing the games. As long as their homework was done and my wife or I had checked it, the kids were free to play video games.

Back then, the majority of kids didn't have video games and our kids would usually go outside and play with their friends instead of sitting in front of the 2600 for hours on end. Our kids were always big readers, too.

Ive got a son he is 3, he is allowed 2 hours a week, supervised.
He likes donkey kong country on my xbox emulator. :)

do kids enjoy 'edutainment' titles?
i was well out of the age bracket when they came out (or atleast under that banner) but at work had to try some to be able to say what they were like
god 16 years old playing a game of match the shapes to solve a maths problem
i actually felt like my IQ was dropping each time i played

i think the more 'retro' in gfx the better for young children
im not saying id plonk my sprog if i had one infront of gta4 or doom3 but when i was a kid and the 48k speccy was all i had to play games on i knew that jet set willy and horrace were just game characters and badly drawn by todays standards
but a young child infront of a 360/ps3 photo realistic game even one for children treds on thin ice

eg if mortal kombat didnt have (badly) digitized characters but claymation fighters would their have been as much to do about it

Of course. Children need escapism as much as adults.

No. Children need to be stimulated.

So you think bad graphics is the key to not being able to tell what's real? You really should give kids more credit.

Probably not. But considering we've been able to register an unprecedented and continual drop in violent crimes since the game was released, it's quite obvious that all the controversy about Mortal Kombat (in particular) and violent video games (in general) is based on a false assumption, propagated largely by the same people who want to decide for you whether you can have premarital sexual intercourse or not.

well i can only go by my observations re childhood gaming memories

and there are alot of mary whitehouses out there*

*i really need to brush up on my their there confusion im sure i get em swapped 90% of the time

More or less I agree with everything Flameduck said.

Games should not be just escapism, they can be other things too.

Any responsible parent is going to want to control what games their children are playing up to a point, in the same way I'd want to be able to moderate any other aspect of the their behaviour. There comes a point when this is no longer practical or desireable and any prohibition you try to enforce is likely to be counter-productive.

Darkheart

Indeed. Somewhat ironically, every single one of them is doing far more damage, than any violent and/or "offensive" media ever could.

Sadly I think there is a direct link between violent games or computer and video games with humanistic violence in them and behaviour in the real world.

As a parent I / we (my wife) have noticed that when my 10 year old son plays long sessions of Gears of War or Oblivion then his attitude changes, being ten he's affected by it a lot more and more susceptible to its influence.

That being said, we do allow him to play it, both me and his mother feel that any child should be allowed to experiance these games as long as we as parents maintain control over the situation and prevent them from getting in to deep, for want of a better phrase.

This is the same link that has been found in adult crime linked to video games, some adults maintain childlike mental states and are just as susceptible to the effects of violent games, the difference is that as adults they are more able to carry out violent acts.

Thankfully the number of crimes like this is small. but how many deaths due to games is counted as acceptable losses ?

My personal opinion is that provided the parents take active roles in monitoring their kids playing habits, then it should be fine.

wow not posted here in ages and my first post is a bit of a rant. sorry guys lol.

Do you buy your kid(s) porno tapes? Why as a parent would you let a 10 year old play games that are clearly labeled not for children of that age and then complain because he is affected by it? This is a perfect example of bad parenting.

I don't think videogames directly cause violent crime. However, I do think that they will have increase aggressive tendencies in a child that plays them excessively.

As such, I (with one 4.5 year old daughter) do / would allow my children to play videogames, but I would vet what they play, and make a judgement call based on a rating, reviews and my own personal views as to whether my child can handle it. I might also choose to limit play time, although Rebecca isn't all that interested in games - cbeebies web site for a couple of hours a week, and she's just getting into Wii Sports & now Wii Fit...

Yeah, exactly .. something Duffer missed, I guess he does not have any kids.

My daughter at the moment, is playing a lot of the Dora Explorer games on the Nick Website. she finds it lots of fun, but it also means I need to watch her to make sure she's not clicking anything she shouldnt be.

read the thread ;c)

you had kids their adults now ;)

edit:
i was allowed to watch what wuold later become 18 rated movies (some predated the bbfc home video ratings) my parents knew them to be horror moves or violent action movies and i by watching them kinda knew they were jsut that movies

as i grew up in the 8bit era ive no idea what if any age rated games i would have been allowed to play if i was raised in this generation
watching freddy kruger kill dozzens of teenagers and wise cracking as he did so is one thing
BEING freddy kruger and doing the same when you are a 10 year old is another

you distance yourself from reality with a movie cos its not interactive (save fro the remote controll) its like reading a book but having someone else do the imagining for you ... ok not the best analogy
but read watch listen to it and you know it to be fiction or semi based on facts in some cases

play it and you ARE the hero villan or whatever of the game of the movie
i doubt the parental controll of anyone who lets their child play gta unsupervised if at all

sometimes age ratings are their for content others because you kinda learn these things irl at a certain age and when confronted with a puzzle or anything that requires semi adult education (im not talking just sex and drugs just gcse even)
we had a family in the shared house im in
parentts in the attic kids (8 and 10 iir)in the far room
kids had a 2nd hand psx (the old design)
they had dino crisis not a very scary game but iir rated either bbfc or pegi? at 15 (i think one of the guys got it for em so he could use thier playstation after he had to sell his ps2)
they got stuck on a puzzle and so did he when he came to help em out
so they asked me when i got in from work
it was to do with the number key cards
it was childishly simple when i looked at it and flipped em upsidedown to reveal leo sol or whatever it was but to them it was out of their leagues ... a few years later and it would be smack the foreheadingly obvious what the answere was

Well that's fine, you're entitled to think whatever you want. However all credible scientific studies on the subject indicate that the opposite is the case. Violent video games serve as a release for many of the frustrations that might otherwise have resulted in actual violence.

Yes. His Adrenaline and Endorphin levels rise, much like they would when playing competitive sports or on christmas morning. That doesn't mean you should stop giving your child presents or prevent them from playing sports.

Citation needed! And I'm not talking about "Twinkie Defenses" either.

Yes. Chiefly those who were under stimulated as children.

No it isn't. Letting some anonymous government organization, that cannot be held accountable to the public, decide for you which material is and is not appropriate for your children is bad parenting. Think for yourself, your kids will thank you for it.

And a poor example too since Mark David Chapman, the fellow who shot John Lennon, did so because he believed himself to be Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye. A book, and a fictional one at that. Of course the real reason he shot John Lennon is because he is batshit insane, not because he'd read a book.

and the guy who did the hungerford massacre never watched rambo even though the press said he damn near wore his vhs thin

some people do bad things because they can
others because they dont know they are bad
yet 'the normal' people get penalised by a single persons actions

edit:
but the movie/book analogy (that i said wasnt the best) was more along the lines of
if i can read the book (of the movie or that inspired the movie) first i will cos i want to see it through my minds eye not the directors and the actors on screen
reading the book afterwards paints the actors into the scenes and kills alot of the imagination process
reading a book of a movie is more active than watching the movie as you have to paint the world and hear the voices in your head (that can be misquoted ;) )

I let my play anything rated T or less. Although I did not let them play any wrestling games for a long time since I consider it an abomination.

The most depressing part of gaming these days is the number of mainstream titles that are M rated due to the vile language.

Basically my take on it is if the person has problems with reality they shouldnt play computer games, some kids act out everything they see and TBH I wouldnt let em near GTA let along GTA4.

My 5 and a half year old plays computer games, but not everything under the sun.

the only internet site his computer can get to is pbskids.org (bunch of flash games based on kids TV shows) plus some educational games like Reader Rabbit and several putt-putt kids' adventure games.