They want the latest, greatest video game. You want to make them happy. But do you ignore the label recommendations for age and content to make that Santa wish come true? According to a recent report by the The National Institute on Media and the Family (see their Video Game Guide HERE), most parents do. Violent and brutal games are extrememly popular, but studies show that violent games have an impact on our children's behavior. I'm lucky - we have a resident "insider" in our house. My daughter worked in the video game industry and was continually amazed at how easily parents would shrug off the age recommendation on the box and purchase a game with inappropriate content for the age of the child for which they were buying. Their choice, yes. But why not heed the label?
My son laments that he is not allowed to play the first-person shooter and brutal war games that some of his friends play, but too bad. Real life is violent enough. Do you let your children play video games labeled for older children?
1 comment:
No! I'm the meanest mom ever (according to my son throughout his gowing up days), but he's made it to 17 w/o ever having games that were "T" for teen or "M" for mature before he fit the label. That's not saying he never played them. Of course when he went to his friends' homes that didn't take heed to the labels he did, (so we restricted visits to them more often than not) but NOT IN MY HOME! He loves me dearly and doesn't even own a video game player these days.
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