How attentive are your parents of what games you play?

Armagon · Post by **Armagon** » 21-04-2005 04:08

Hey guys, I'm presently doing some research into the topic of violence in video games for a university assignment. I wanted to do some research myself and thought of various places I could look for information. Now I have opted NOT to go asking something silly like, "Do you think video games make people violent?" because frankly people on game forums like this would be biased.

So the question I am asking here is quite simple, how well are your parents monitoring the sort of games you play? Even if you're old enough to play most games on the shelves without parental permission, most of you at some point or another have played games you shouldn't have had access to (I know I have).

For example I can recall experiences of playing Quake when I was only 11, my parents never really took note of the rating of the game or the fact it was quite violent. As a result they made no effort to stop me from playing such games. So I'd personally say as far as taking responsability for what games I was playing, the effort they made was pretty much nil.

However I know there are parents out there who DO keep an eye on what games their children are playing. Are your parents like this? Please vote in the poll, as I will be using the stats I accumulate in conjunction with those I gather at other forums.

Above all, please be honest with your votes.

DiStUrbeD · Post by **DiStUrbeD** » 21-04-2005 07:26

not only did they allow me to play games i wasn't supposed to play

they bought them for me $\o/$

-plær- · Post by **-plær-** » 21-04-2005 09:32

Voted for "dissapproving remarks", with the following explanation:

My first *proper* PC game was Duke Nukem 3D, rated 18 in the UK. I can't have been more than 10/11, and I got my Dad to buy it for me. But he did watch over my shoulder the first few times I played.

Same with movies. I was allowed to stay up and watch the latest Schwarzenegger on tv, but my folks stayed up with me.

From the age of about 14/15, the concern was not *what* I played (I bought most of my own stuff by then, thanks to Belgian lack-of-age-ratings), but *how long* I played them for.

From what I can read into it, they realised I could differentiate between reality and fiction. As long as excessive gameplay didn't affect schoolwork they didn't mind.

Sixty · Post by **Sixty** » 21-04-2005 11:38

Dissaproving comments.

("Can't you just play normal games where you don't have to kill everything that moves?")

speedy · Post by **speedy** » 21-04-2005 15:57

"They pay no attention to what games I'm playing and whether I should be playing them or not."

sometimes they watch and stuff.

Scotteh · Post by **Scotteh** » 21-04-2005 18:03

I recently did a research paper on the same thing...actually I just turned it in today. My paper was on should video game sales be regulated? I discussed the effects found in violent video games and found out a lot of info that the government has tried to do over the years. In my paper I also discussed your question. I found the following info in a book called Children in the Digital Age. 'Ninety percent of teens in grades 8 to 12 report that their parents never check the ratings of video games before allowing their purchase, and only 1% of the teens' parents had ever prevented a purchase based on the rating. Also, 89% reported that their parents never limited time spent playing video games.' I hope this helps.

[1234]Jr · Post by **[1234]Jr** » 21-04-2005 20:35

Games dont kill people, nutters do.

...Oh and im about the same as Speedy on the parents front. My dad plays UT

`Ghost` · Post by **`Ghost`** » 22-04-2005 11:28

Computers/gaming is a seperate world to the one my dad lives in and my mum if she had the time would like to play the games i play D: GG Ghost's mum playing db

Capital_G · Post by **Capital_G** » 22-04-2005 12:06

Rates don't make any sense anyway.
At one point, theres games like GTA...sure, you drive over people, but does it have any "bad" content?
I mean, 18+, sheesh, I'd expect it to contain sex.
Then theres a game like...say....wow.
The fact that it is online only allready ensures that you WILL be confronted with bad language.
excessively even.
And it's 16+

Now what is worse?

Hell, some time ago I saw a tv commercial about a PORN movie at 8 PM.

Well...thats not true...It's called "Contraversial".
Can someone tell me the difference?

Oh, and my parents never took note as to what games I play.
They make disapproving remarks on the fact that I play games though

But not -what- kind.

Sixty · Post by **Sixty** » 22-04-2005 12:36

Imo violence is worse then sex.

A twelve year old knows where babies come from, believe me.

I don't get why the world, especially America, is still so conservative about sex in the media. It's natural, without we wouldn't be here.

All we learn about sex in school nowadays is what diseases you can get and how horrible teen pregnancy is.

Extreme violonce could shock little kids though, but above the age of 14 I think you can handle pretty much everything.

Cenotaph · Post by **Cenotaph** » 22-04-2005 13:06

Sixty wrote: Imo violence is worse then sex. [/B]

No shit?

RaGe|DB · Post by **RaGe|DB** » 22-04-2005 13:31

they used to watch it alot, now they know im old enough to decide myself

Messy · Post by **Messy** » 22-04-2005 15:46

If power rangers can contain cities being ruined, spikey-titted dominatrix witches, and people in tight suits kicking the shit out of eachother, any kid should be allowed to play GTA imo

The first game I ever actually noticed had an age warning was Mortal Kombat 3 (16+)

My uncle used to give and borrow all kinds of games he played too.
He was the one that got me into classics like Duke Nukem 3D and Mortal Kombat <3
Doom and Heretic were a bit scary, but I played them nonetheless.

The only problem I really had was that games like Carmaggedon would get me absolutely hooked, and I really really wanted to finish it.
I played it so often I could only think about Carmaggedon and started dreaming of it (and generally being restless, wanting to play instead of sleep when in bed ;p etc).

Never actually had nightmares because of it though

Just..playing it from 9AM to 7 or 8PM kind of got me all worked up ;p

ps: The only thing my mom has whined about, and is still complaining about, is the fear of my skin getting pale and my eyes getting bad (too late and..too late!) and me getting not enough social contact etc. (having girlfriends frequently fixed that problem

)

She also thinks schoolwork suffers from it, but all my grades are great..and she wants me to do normal stuff because she sees any deviation from her norms as 'bad' and 'unhealthy', though she can't explain why

She's so narrow-minded it's close to amusing (but most of all frustrating).

Armagon · Post by **Armagon** » 22-04-2005 18:34

Thanks for the responses so far guys. Of course, more votes will help me further in my research.

NoSexualFreak · Post by **NoSexualFreak** » 23-04-2005 12:14

My dad loved it so much he moved my broadband to 300kbs upload. woot

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