this topic header sounds sooooooo bad

If parents can't follow ESRB raitings then they fail as parents. Ive made a huge post about this on another forum about how parents are the ones to blame for their lack of participation with what their child is buying / what they are buying for their child. Its their responsability to know what something contains before you expose it to your kids.

Yeah, but even behavior like stashing an extra power cord is something you could teach a child not to do. The key is figuring out whether the child sneaks in extra game time in the after hours as a result of being a mischievous child, or as a result of having an unhealthy addiction.

Many parents either lack the ability to tell the difference, or just plain won't admit that there is a problem.

I got my start with gory games at the age of seven, jumping at any opportunity to pull out my fists in Doom II, because I liked the way that imps would sometimes explode when you hit them. I can't say that I've ever gotten into a physical fight with anyone but my little brother, and I frown upon carrying a gun or even a knife, unless going camping. If video games could turn a child violent, then I should have participated in at least two school shootings by now.

Among my first memories is sitting on my father's lap, playing DooM with him. "I open the door and daddy shoots the guy." I grew up around shooters. Hell, my grandfather was the one who introduced me to Half-Life. Despite the raw amount of violence I've been exposed to in video games and media, I am not a violent person.

Violent games don't make violent people. Violent environments make violent people.

Also, I can relate to Rik with the clever-child stories. When Halo 2 came out, and my parents thought I played it too much, they put my xbox, my tv, and all the cords in the storage space. And every night, I would sneak into the storage, hook everything up, and play there. Extra power cords, extra mice, extra keyboards, system restore discs so that I could restore my computer if my dad changed my password on it. Shit was on.

The argument of violent video games making people violent is as old as it's supporters, and will die with them. This is the cutting edge of graphics technology. This is where the new stories are being told. This is where the future is. The sooner that's culturally understood, the better off the industry, and the public, will be.

I just think parents are more worried about what's in games these days because we've gone past the point where the worst we can see is a yellow circle eating a coloured blob.

When i asked my mum if she could buy me GTA 3 she did her nut even though i was religiously watching Die Hard films from the age of 8. Parents probs find games harder to monitor than films, cos the parent cant play em before the kid does.