News EU: Games industry must protect children

[CardJoe]

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/04...ect_children/1

The EU has handed the games industry an ultimatum - take steps to protect children from violent media, or laws will be made to make you.

[cjoyce1980]

surelly just using the BBFC rating system is good enough, and is a legal requirement before selling to check someone age.

so this bring is back to another problem, is the problem with the kids buying the games (or the parents purchasing for them) or the retailers not taking due care

[dark4181]

in response, i say: no, parents must protect (their) children

i don't know about others, but i wouldn't want some stranger to be responsible for protecting my kids

just shows how lazy people are becoming.. they can't be bothered to raise and look after their kids

[mmorgue]

@dark4181

+1 -- Agreed!

This is absolute wank. Why is it the game industry's responsability to "protect children"? Why would any parent want some corporation telling their children what they should/shouldn't do?

Typical half-assed parenting and lousy govt avoidance in *making* those parents be responsabile for the little snot-balls they produce.

[Paradigm Shifter]

When I popped into Game at the weekend, the woman in front of me in the queue was pre-ordering GTA4 for her child, who was standing next to her... and this kid cannot have been more than 8 or 9. It was also patently obvious that it was for the kid, as he was bouncing up and down like a kangaroo on speed squealing about how much he wanted to play GTA4.

So how is another ratings system going to make any difference, when parents ignore the advice of the current ones?

[sotu1]

"just shows how lazy people are becoming.. they can't be bothered to raise and look after their kids"

we can mostly pin the blame on chav parents....

[Cthippo]

THe duty of the industry ends with making the content of their games known to the purchaser. It's up to parents and, lets face it, kids to decide what is appropriate. I think the industry needs to pick one system and then make an effort to educate people about that system, but really that's all they can do. The rest is up toretailers and mostly to parents.

[hawky84]

I have a solution...

parents do your job!

[DXR_13KE]

Originally Posted by cjoyce1980

surelly just using the BBFC rating system is good enough,

except when they ban stuff that has less gore than the gore displayed on tv...

[Arkanrais]

They should use the same system we have in NZ. when you walk into a video store and you look at the ratings on games, they have the exact same sticker as the ones on movies where it has an age (pg13 m15 r16 r18) or letters (e-[everyone] PGR-[parental guidance recommended] m-[mature persons 15 and over]) with a small description of what the media contains (violence, graphic violence, horror scenes, nudity, sex scenes coarse language etc.).
still, it does sound like the parents are the incompetent ones in regard to ratings. though when I was a kid there were games I wasn't allowed to play because my mother actually payed attention to what I was doing and she'd notice if I had nightmares or changed my behavior after playing a game (she even noticed I started drawing a lot more skeletons, demons and the like after playing my way through castlevania SOTN back in '98 when I was 10).

[Eloquence]

Oh please, any kid who wants a game will get their hands on it regardless of the rating. Via the intarwebs or through a friend who has it. I wish these big organizations would stop turning businesses into nannies and make parents take responsibility for their children for a change.

[WildThing]

When children go out to play today they enter the world of joysticks.

Lol aren't joysticks extinct?

On a more serious note though, I think the parents a largely to blame. As Paradigm Shifter said, if parents are gonna buy their kids games that are not suitable for them, regardless of any rating system, then what's the point!

[dark4181]

^word, we have analog sticks now. they're nifty

But then, it seems like the whole world wants to take over the jobs of parents. from the government on down, all I'm hearing is "tax and control, tax and control"

[Breach]

I'd agree that the industry should hold a standard ratings tools for parents no different than movie ratings (which no one seems to have a problem with). It is the parent's responsibility to protect their children, not the industries.

[Faulk_Wulf]

Okay lets make this loud and clear. It makes no difference what system you come up to rate games. Whether its the moving rating system, the ESRB system, or whatever other countries use to mark their games with. It doesn't matter at all. Cause they don't work. They don't work cause no one wants to take the ----ing bloody effort to TRY AND LEARN THE SYSTEM! The corporate owners, CEO's, and even store owners don't care who the game gets sold to, as long as they're getting sold. And the sales associates are usually between 14-21 / 50+ . They don't care. They are there to stock the shelves, do the grunt work, collect their paycheck, and get the heck out of the store when their shift is up. Same with those on the registers. Trust me, I've seen the people that work at Wal-Mart, and I --am-- one of those people that works at Shopko. The --only-- time I have --ever-- commented on a games rating is when a mother was picking up Manhunt 2 and it had been fairly obvious that she didn't know much about video games so I asked her how old her son was that she was buying it for. She said "nine" and I about fell over. Once I explained the game--- she was mortified. "Why isn't their a warning on these things?!" I pointed to the M and explained the E/T/M ratings of the ESRB. Until parents care enough to ask, until the heads of retailers make sure to post information-- i don't care if the rating system uses smiley faces or size 72 font. It just won't work.

(Consequently, some store chain used to have a banner with all the ESRB ratings and their meanings posted right across the game shelf. That was at least a good effort.)

P.S. - Sorry if I was a bit snippy.

[C-Sniper]

Originally Posted by dark4181

in response, i say: no, parents must protect (their) children

i don't know about others, but i wouldn't want some stranger to be responsible for protecting my kids

just shows how lazy people are becoming.. they can't be bothered to raise and look after their kids

But the problem is that most parents Won't say no and try to be the cool parent by buying some AO game for their child before he says that his parent abuses him or something.

[rls669]

Yay for the nanny state. Yay for making others responsible for stupid people and their stupid spawn.

Forget guns. Forget laser pointers. They only thing you should need a license for is reproduction.

[DXR_13KE]

i just saw this on tv.... the odd thing was that they were showing sega saturn games on the selves..... and old accessories...... and old video games....... but most of the ingame videos were from people getting killed by lara croft and such....

[Spaceraver]

It looks like stupidity ensued in the EU.

[naokaji]

ban humans, problem solved.

the problem is indeed with people not caring and a lack of knowledge as Faulk_Wulf pointed out, the shops make money from selling games, the sales person will most likely earn min wage + a sales bonus, so the shop and its employes have no interest in enforcing the age rating and many parents are simply clueless.