{"id":3924,"date":"2010-02-14T00:39:08","date_gmt":"2010-02-14T06:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamingwithchildren.com\/?p=3924"},"modified":"2010-02-14T00:39:08","modified_gmt":"2010-02-14T06:39:08","slug":"youve-given-me-a-gta-headache","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2010\/02\/14\/youve-given-me-a-gta-headache\/","title":{"rendered":"You’ve Given Me a GTA Headache"},"content":{"rendered":"

JARED, A “DAD” ASKS:<\/strong> My 9 year old son wants grand theft auto iv or grand theft\u00a0auto ballad of gay tony for xbox 360. I want to know if the game is\u00a0so bad for my son. I let him play games like x-men origins wolverine\u00a0uncaged and prototype and saw and halo 3 and left 4 dead and call of\u00a0duty. Also I got him gta chinatown wars for his dsi and he tells me\u00a0its not bad. My son always tells me that it’s not bad it’s all fake.\u00a0I take him to see movies like the friday the 13th remake and\u00a0halloween 2 and watchmen and zombieland and my bloody valentine.\u00a0Would the gta games be so bad for him?<\/em><\/p>\n

See? See what I have to deal with here sometimes? Of course I’m extremely skeptical that this is actually a Dad writing- but for kid or Dad, this is still a remarkably lazy and ignorant question. Grand Theft Auto is pretty much the high-water mark in M-rated gaming. \u00a0I know for a fact that Rockstar games would tell you, in no uncertain terms, that they don’t want your kid playing their games. Period. The ESRB makes it clear with the rating AND by giving GTA every warning descriptor in their arsenal. Our entire media and the forces that loathe gaming consider GTA the top of their hit-list. This is a no-brainer!<\/p>\n

Here’s my answer in full: NO!!!<\/p>\n

NO!!<\/p>\n

NO!<\/p>\n

No.<\/p>\n

no.<\/p>\n

No<\/p>\n

I don’t think ANY of the games or movies listed in this “question” are appropriate for a 9-year old and I wouldn’t let my own 9-year old BOY or GIRL play or view ANY of these things. \u00a0Since, in game terms, GTA is pretty much the high water mark, the most M of M-rated games, then OF COURSE it’s not appropriate for a 9-year old.<\/p>\n

There. Is that the answer you wanted? What answer did you expect?<\/p>\n

Now if you are a Dad then, given the clear lack of ANY limit on what your child can view or play then clearly you’re going to do what you’re going to do. \u00a0And for the record, that’s 100% your business. I really believe that, my position is not to tell you HOW to parent. “GamerDad does not moralize” said National Public Radio.<\/p>\n

But just because I don’t care what you do with your kid I do care if parent or child tries to use me, my credibility and my expertise \u00a0to justify willfully ignorant and lazy parenting. \u00a0Do what you want to do “Dad,” just leave me out of it because you clearly don’t care yourself. And since I think you’re actually a kid – let me add:<\/p>\n

GROW UP and stop wasting my time.<\/p>\n

Now I have a headache.<\/p>\n

Ow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

JARED, A “DAD” ASKS: My 9 year old son wants grand theft auto iv or grand theft\u00a0auto ballad of gay tony for xbox 360. I want to know if the game is\u00a0so bad for my son. I let him play games like x-men origins wolverine\u00a0uncaged and prototype and saw and halo 3 and left 4 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3924\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}