News Police commissioner calls for Adults Only game rating

Let me elaborate...I believe a little self-direction is necessary in a kids life, and media is an ideal means to that end. I'm advocating a hands-off approach - If a kid wants to watch a movie or play a game, let them watch or play. If they get freaked out then they've learned about their boundaries. I remember watching an episode of the twilight zone - this one actually - when I was still young enough to be afraid of the dark. The opening narration said something like "Kids are meant to be over their fear of the dark by the time they're 13", and while I did have a few sleepless nights afterwards I also had a goal - To be over my fear of the dark by the time I was a teenager. Lo and behold, I was...

As for the simulated vs real stuff...you're going off the deep-end now, because we're no longer talking about entertainment. Presentation is everything; No matter how realistic or disturbing entertainment is, it's usually packaged with a narrative where the protagonist overcomes the "evil". I can attest there is empowerment in that. Gore clips, on the other hand, lack that narrative; They're just morbid and provide no further understanding of the world, unlike, say, the news which also features extremely graphic footage from time to time.

 

It's interesting how this conversation topic has evolved, in doing so I think it's raised some good points.

Certainly to me I don't feel as if games offer much of a destructive avenue in regards to violence etc. Whilst I don't have evidence to back up that claim, it's the opinion I've settled upon for now. However, I do think there are areas where the ratings actually make sense, namely language IMO. I was a 10 year old only 12 years ago, so I remember what we found exciting. I got hold of GTA quite early on and what surprised me at the time was how much bad language there was, at the time I had no idea games had that. We all thought it was really cool, I doubt that's any different with current kids that age or ones 50 years ago.

Before I sound like a prude, the reason why I mentioned language is because it's not directly dangerous and it's hard to define where to draw a line, especially for a kid. It's all new and exciting to them after all. My current line of thinking is heavily based on how I was brought up. Basically kids IMO should be taught not to swear until they understand it and can use it appropriately. Anybody with young siblings or children will know that young kids just don't know how to swear properly. So why does this concern games like GTA? Well it provides a cool bad language scenario within a context, but young kids won't necessarily understand that context fully, they just don't have the life experience. It's not even about being clever or not, the thought process of "Maybe I shouldn't say that at this moment" is just something you pick up with time. If you accelerate that too much then you're presented with either just a series of awkward but funny moments, or something more serious.

Case in point, my younger brother (by a year) took a long time to work that out. One time when we were 14 or so we were heading home with some friends from a climbing centre. Now this place isn't exactly situated in the best bit of London so it pays to be a bit cautious. Some guy wanted to overtake us on a bike, we let him through and he passed on whilst muttering "Cheers gents". My brother in his infinite wisdom yelled after the guy "Safe!", he screached to a stop and peddled back to confront us whilst pulling out a knife. Luckily it was probably all for show and we managed to calm him down by saying it was an accident etc. but that could have ended so much worse. All because my brother didn't know when to shut up. Language is important guys, it's more than just about knowing what words to say, it's about knowing what not to say and when also.

On another note. I reckon Internet gore content and shock sites are far more "damaging" than games anyway. I don't mean that they turn people into sadists or something, no I'm talking much more mild. I mean that they can easily desensitise you to events that should be shocking. Maybe not so much in a real life situation, but sometimes you should be shocked by something you haven't witnessed in the flesh, you may be able to do something about it after all. Certainly I know that I've been pretty numbed by online shock content. In real life an accident or crime will always shock me hard I reckon (or I hope so at least), but online I couldn't give a monkey's arse. Sometimes you need to be shocked into doing something, it could affect you in the future, just it's much harder to do that to me now. Not sure what you can do tbh without trampling on a lot of values I'd rather uphold mind. Maybe it's more of a matter of advising people not to spread such content too often without a better reason than "I wanted to get a funny reaction from a friend".

 

We weren't really talking about entertainment; we were talking in general about censorship and what kids should be protected from vs exposed to. Here and now, all that stuff is available to kids who have a computer at home (or indeed a smartphone) and who can freely access the internet. I'm sure many kids who watch that stuff treat it as entertainment, whether that's what it's intended to be or not, so to exclude it from a discussion about censorship is perhaps more than a little naive.

Moreover, attraction to that sort of thing in the media is not new. Almost 20 years ago, when I was still in high school, there was a copy of Executions doing the rounds and the guys were completely fascinated by it - all the more so because the video was banned in the UK at the time of its release. That kind of material is very easily accessible now (incidentally, much of it via "news" network websites) and young minds are so primed with graphically violent games/movies that they are probably even more curious (and even enticed) than they might ordinarily be.

If anything I think the focus of censorship should be taken away from media that is strictly entertainment and put on more disturbing media that kids can watch on their smartphones whilst having their lunch at school. It really is crazy to think that people make such a fuss about games and movies considering what else is out there, but we're back to what the government is able to control, and how it makes a big scene about it. Yay government.

 

So this came up in my FB news feed today and I thought it was relevant to the discussion. All I can say is that Mortal Kombat has changed somewhat since I used to play it on the Nintendo, LOL.

 

The visuals are pretty gross, but the audio is just awesomely disgusting

I wouldn't let a small child see that if I could help it.

 

The worst we saw when I was the tender age of 21 was this:

 

Dying from the flu at the moment, so my replies will be brief and probably incoherent (the screen, it burns!) but...

Barbarian and 90s Mortal Kombat contained all the themes and concepts that modern games do. The difference is the graphics. So essentially the argument seems to be that better graphics are corrupting the minds of our youth...which I find preposterous.

What I do find compelling is that the same critique has been levelled at comics, television, film, all the way back to Lady Chatterly's Lover and beyond. Every generation seems to think their contemporary media has crossed the line and yet the world on the whole has become a safer place.

Now, if you'll excuse me I must go kill my brother; Kill him with my gun; Leave him lying in his uniform, dying in the sun because war has never been so much fun.