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While the film industry seems to be granted a free pass to do whatever it likes, the games industry is held at the door and sanctioned time and again for poisoning the minds of the world’s children. This time it’s a combination of the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) and parents who are turning their attention to video game content.
A recent survey conducted for the BBFC has concluded that 74% of parents are worried about what games may contain, while 79% believe that children can be affected by what they play. Sexual activity seems to have become the latest target, ousting even the dreaded video game violence.
“On the whole, sexual activity in games is nowhere near as common as violence, but it is becoming more common,” said the BBFC’s Sue Clark.
The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) is hoping to become the sole source of video game classifications in the UK, although three-quarters of those asked said that video games need an independent body.
I’m sure that these parents aren’t concerned about their adult offspring viewing sexual content in games, which means they must be referring to children under 18 years of age. Surely a poll telling us that 74% of parents (who obviously think sex is a terrible, terrible thing) are concerned about video game content is basically the equivalent of saying that 26% of parents are doing their job right.
It’s perfectly normal to be worried about the content of many things like films, books, television shows, music and games etc. It’s just that parents should be aware that games have certificates, just like movies, and these need to be respected and followed in much the same way. This is not a problem if you take an interest in what your child does in his or her spare time.
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Parents need to monitor their children more often…
If sex is a bad thing parents, stop having sex. Don’t want to? Then calm yourselves and realize sex is nature and beautiful. Get over yourselves. Really.
Please remind me, since my memory seems to fail me, why is sex bad?
Cause if it’s just that the parents don’t think that their kids shouldn’t play the game, then see to it that they don’t. Either by monitoring your children’s gaming habits, or by contributing in some way to a better security system that doesn’t allow kids to play these games… though some kids will always find a way to play them anyways:P….
as you say, it’s normal to be worried about your children’s well being as a parent, though taking this feature out of a game (which some parents seem to wish that they could do) they should take more responsibility themselves concerning their children’s gaming habits and stop acting like it’s a freaking greek tradgedy every time something controversial is included in a game, cause kids aren’t the only ones playing games you know, and people mature enough to handle certain content shouldn’t be denied that content no matter how inappropriate it might be for kids. that’s like denying people scissors because kids don’t know that it can be dangerous to run around while holding one…
So if parents want to worry about something, worry about life in general, cause it’s more likely that other stuff than video gaming is gonna ruin their children’s lives…
I have to agree, it should be the parents responsibility to make sure there children aren’t playing games or watching movies that are inappropriate for them. This is why there are parental controls on things such as…
- TV’s
- Cable Boxes
- DVD Players,Blu-ray Players
- Videogame Systems (PS3,Wii,XBOX 360)
and there are ratings on everything that I listed so that parents know what kind of content is on whatever they are watching.
I did just think of something though when it comes to games, if game developers were able to make it so if a underage child was playing any games that were inappropriate for them and the parental controls were set up correctly it would disable certain aspects of said game that were deemed inappropriate (Excessive Blood,Violence,Alcohol) etc etc etc… yes it may take away from the game for the child but when a person who is old enough to play it was playing then all the content would be allowed.Although I do realize this takes even more work & time for the developer to implement this but it would definitely shut up most parents as the developers are doing all they can to prevent children from seeing that content, of course if parents fail to implement the parental controls like they are now they it is of course all there fault since they are not paying attention. I believe this would show that the developers care without them limiting all of us who are 18 & older.
The only problem I see is certain games just wouldn’t be the games they are without the content such as The Grandtheft Auto Series but those shouldn’t be played by children at all so that whole game could be blocked by the parental controls.
I think it would be a good idea to enable certain inappropriate material from a game, although the violence is likely to be integral to the gameplay. Perhaps the bad language and such could be toned down but I think taking out blood is a dangerous thing to do.
It’s important to show kids that people bleed and feel pain when they are shot/stabbed/punched etc. Taking out the blood would take away the consequences of such actions and may lead them to believe this is the case in real life. You never know!
Also, Eli made a good point in saying that adults should never be denied this content… Here’s hoping nothing gets banned!
I bet all those offended parents are from America. We arent part of the old days where GOD would punish you for having sex before wedding and that you hidded in the bathtub to have sex with your partner with light off. If you wanna be offended about something be offended of those Gay Parade or whatever. But Please stop blaming video games if i didn’t had video games to put my agressivity on sometimes i swear a few people would have died and that’s not because of video games it’s just TO ME they were way too Ignorant and foolish to be even allowed to live.