What is your opinion on violent, shooter type, video games? Do you let your kids play them?
Love 'em!
Yes, they will be allowed to play them. If seeing violence begat violence argument held water, then how come watching musicals doesn't make people run out in the streets singing and dancing? Why aren't masses of 10 year olds playing Mario Kart and then driving the family car?
That old concern was a political stunt in the 80's. It has since, in study after study, been found to be laughably false.
So get 'em the new Call of Duty, learn how to play with your son, and point out to him that he knows this is fake, right? Discuss, and keep on playing! :)
My son is 5, and he's not really into them. I don't think the problem is just the games, though they may desensitize. The problem is letting computers raise or babysit kids to the point where they have no social connection to family, friends, etc. If they are a healthy kid, it may have very little impact to spend lots on the computer playing these games, etc. But if they are NOT healty, then who knows. If they con't connect, if they have issues, and the parents aren't paying attention, if the school doesn't catch it or isn't listened to when they try to tell the parents, If the kid doesn't have friends to re-direct, or has the wrong friends. A game isn't the cause. But maybe, it could be a symptom or a warning sign if something seems "off" with the kid re. their playing.
I still think it's about paying attention, being aware, and not letting ourselves or our kids get locked into bubbles that disconnect them from society.
ADD: Phrases I use with my son - "real world" and "pretend world". He knows that real world lava will kill you, and that pretend world lava won't, for example. It's an ongoing discussion that requres relating to your kids. That's an important key.
My daughter played them as a child and plays them as a young adult. She is not violent, and in fact, is one of the most non-violent, compassionate people I have ever met.
From the time she was little, I made it clear to her that what she saw on a tv or movie screen was not real. she understood that when you shoot people in a game, they aren't real people, just pictures drawn on a computer.
No. We like the old Street Fighter and stuff like that, and we love Duck Hunt (remember that?) and the hunting games they have now, but we have a rule that we don't shoot people in our games. And the zombies and robots are too scary looking for my sons to play shoot right now (they're only 6 and 3) but I wouldn't mind them hunting or shooting robots later. No shooting people though. It just feels weird. Except for the old arcade game you see sometimes where you're in police academy training (targets, and then the "good guy/bad guy" pop ups where you try to shoot the bad guy target without hurting the innocent civilian popups. I don't mind that.
ETA: I love paintball, laser tag, and waterguns! I guess the difference is that I'm not shooting someone to kill them, I'm shooting them to splat paint on their coveralls or to get them "out" so I can capture their flag, or just for the fun of getting wet on a warm day. It's not "death" the way as shooting someone and watching blood fly out the back of their heads is on Call of Duty. I don't think it's hypocritical, I think it's easier to know you're playing a game and death doesn't enter into it when playing laser tag capture the flag or whatever.
I know I'm the minority but I can't stand them. My husband plays them and I just can't understand the appeal and I don't understand the point. My kids are still young (4 and 1.5) but I plan to keep them away as long as possible. I just think there are so many other ways they could be spending their time.
Angry kids play angry games, angry games do not make angry kids.
My kids have never asked for these types of games but if they did I see nothing wrong with them.
I don't like them. I don't understand why blood and guts and gore and torture are entertaining. I didn't want my kid to learn that they are. We never had them, and he turned out great. I don't see it as enhancing a child's social or intellectual development, and I think they are particularly problematic in young people whose brains are not fully formed (which happens around age 25). So, with all the forms of entertainment out there, why choose this junk?
You have to evaluate your own children and determine if they are mature enough to discern fact from fiction and capable of understanding it is just a game. For us, we let our son (almost 13) play them.
We have talked at length about the real/fake aspect of them. This works for our home, results may vary..... :)
I don't think anyone could ever imagine Space Invaders being a problem.
Lazer tag and paint ball are popular games - even though the whole point is to point a pseudo weapon at another person and pull the trigger.
However the realistic blood and guts point-at-humans-to-kill-them games bother me and we don't buy/play them.
PC Magazine rated The 10 Most Violent Video Games of All Time last June:
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2010)
Postal (1997)
Mortal Kombat (2011)
Grand Theft Auto III (2001)
MadWorld (2009)
Manhunt (2003)
Splatterhouse (2010)
Soldier of Fortune (2000)
God of War III (2010)
Dead Space (2008)
Full article:
http://www.pcmag.com/slideshow/story/260445/the-10-most-violent-video-games-of-all-time/1
I do not understand why people buy/play this stuff.
Just seeing a few screen pics (and I'm sure the pics they chose were tame compared to others they could have chosen) is enough to give some people Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
These are suppose to be Rated Mature games - for adults - but people let their kids play them - the company's that sell them make money else they would not bother putting them on the market.
And frankly the adults that enjoy such realistic violence worry me a bit.
I wish we could ban this stuff but it's difficult to do.
Perhaps every purchase should require a minimum years worth of psychiatric sessions with a therapist at the buyers expense.
Yes I let my son play them, and my husband too.
I don't like video games, even if they are teaching math and reading, lol. We don't have any. Violent doesn't sound good either, but it's mainly the idea of a kid staring at a screen that sounds unhealthy.
I'm okay with it. I was a little more protective of the older kids, but that was a lot harder to do with the younger kids.
So instead, I have let them play. I really see no difference between them and the older kids who had to wait.
The one thing with my 11 year old is that he loves to learn and study about whatever era a particular game is set in, he's a bit of a history buff. So it's not all 'bad'.
The only game the kids play is Mine Craft and most of the time they are only on Create or build. They do play with the zombies too but they do that with hubby and both kids. They enjoy it a lot. I don't play that game.
They do not watch Kick Buttowski or any other show that has Martial arts in it. We watched the new Karate Kid movie with Will Smith's son and even though it was a good movie we had to live with kicking and hitting for a few days that was not needed.
My son is 9, so he just wants to play Mario. He doesn't like violent games or shows, or anything involving guns. Which, is not from our influence, its just the type of kid he is. We don't condone violence or guns used incorrectly. So, why would it be any different for entertainment purposes?
My kids have played Call of Duty but that's about it . . . and it's not one of their favorites.
I tried to avoid them until they got older and we could discuss it.
I agree with Jim - it's dependent on your particular kids imho.
One of my kids loves sports games and the other one loves PC strategy and creative games.
As my son matures, so do his games.
Appropriate is the key word.
Or--Are you asking if violent games result in violent kids? Because that has been proven false numerous times by experts.
A "typical" child has no trouble discerning reality from fiction. Again ghey should be child specifically age appropriate.
And no, I don't think the game rating system is the final expert. There are some M games that my 10 year old is fine with.
I'm more concerned with the language than the violence.
For the record, I don't intend to let my kids play video games much in general. MAYBE they can buy their own one day with strict usage limitation (as in time spent, not so much substance) while they live at home..and they can play them at friends houses occasionally. THAT SAID, The safest and most gentle culture I have ever visited, with the most gentle, well-behaved, crime-free teenagers is in Tokyo Japan, the mecca of violent video games.
I don't think video games cause violence unless paired with many other destructive habits and factors.
I have a 15-year old girl and three boys, age 14, 8 & 6. We didn't have any video games at all until my oldest son was 8 and that was a hand-me-down from someone. I strongly dislike that my younger boys have grown up with gaming but I lost that battle a long time ago.
Anyway...we don't allow violent games, even for our oldest. I know full well that he plays those games at other kids' houses and has been since about age 12, and I'm not concerned that an hour of that here or there while hanging out with a group of kids is all that bad.
What worries me at the kids who have game systems in their rooms who put on headsets and play intensely violent games live with other players for hours and hours and hours on end. I know my son has peers who do this on weekends or vacations. I worry about why that is so appealing to them and why their parents allow it. There is an intensity and duration and level of isolation and focus that is not normal or healthy. I wonder if those kids are addicted to gaming, or if playing violent, first-person shooting games for a long time in isolation blurs the line between reality and gaming.
The only games we have in our house are sports games (various Wii sports, hockey and soccer), racing games, skate boarding games, Rock Band and the Lego games (Batman, Indiana Jones etc.). Yeah my kids would play all day if I let them, but we keep it to reasonable time limit and then shut off all screens and tell them to find something else to do. I dislike that it's often their default leisure activity and feel like if we didn't have a gaming system at all, they'd be doing other creative, constructive things like legos or puzzles or drawing all the time (they do those too, but games are their first choice).
A friend posted on FB recently a thought that it's demeaning to our boys that we give them a steady diet of violence as entertainment, and why don't we trust them to be capable of doing more that's productive and creative?
My kids are still younger, but I don't intend to ever let them play violent video games. They are allowed to play video games, but I see no need to play games in whish you are shooting and killing people.