GD Press – KEYE CBS in Central Texas
Thanks to reader Chelseabot for notifying me that Central Texas’ KEYE News, a CBS affiliate, has mentioned us positively in an article about parents and gaming. Here’s the quote: “If the idea of playing video games with your kids doesn’t strike a chord, help is only a click away. Web sites like gamerdad.com review games from a parent’s perspective. They also explain the reasoning behind the ratings” Click ‘more’ for the full story:
photo from the AP
The article, by Bettie Cross, is titled “Concerns Raised About Videogame Industry’s Rating System.” And it talks about how many kids play games (9 out of 10) and then quotes our good friends at Mediawise that dads aren’t involved and that people don’t look at the ratings. (Go read it and please come back)
Then it says that experts blame the ESRB for this. I disagree with the premise that the ESRB is somehow to blame for this parental ignorance. They’ve got placards in every story, commercials on TV, and they sponsor media tours. The parents this article is concerned with aren’t ignorant. They’re apathetic. In my talks with parents, the actual culprit when I find one who buys violent games for their kids is. that they don’t much care.
The bulk of parents are either too busy to care, or they remember watching Friday the 13th a gajillion times on HBO when they were a kid and they think “I’m fine, virtual violence didn’t hurt me.” Most “experts” think video games are different than other media – but most parents don’t seem to believe that. For some people, the idea that violence begets violence is common sense. For others, virtual violence isn’t harmful and that’s the common sense. I’m not saying parents who do this are wrong. Far from it. They just don’t think digitized blood is harmful. So the main reason this site exists is the tell parents what’s in the games – not to warn them away from it, but to let them know that some games are more violent than others.
But really – for most M-rated games, parents know what they’re doing. You don’t buy Manhunt, Grand Theft Auto, or any other game with an obviously violent title and box art and then blame a lack of understanding about the rating. The ESRB isn’t to blame for parental apathy.
March 27th, 2008 at 10:04 am
” The ESRB isn’t to blame for parental apathy. ”
That may be true but it hasn’t stopped them from blaming it on the ESRB.
March 27th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
I don’t think that parents blame it on the ESRB – I think it is opportunistic people out to score political points who do that.
I do however think that too many parents who let young kids play M games *alone* (not talking about choosing to play along with them, but rather about buying them whatever game they want and not watching them) don’t think about the potential side-effects. Many of these games have wide online connections that are full of predatory people waiting to taek advantage of kids who are 10 or 11 …