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IGS: New research shows that parents ignore game age ratings

Old 06-23-05, 03:29 PM
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IGS: New research shows that parents ignore game age ratings

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=9703

Rob Fahey 10:18 23/06/2005

Kids free to play what they like as parents abdicate responsibility for content control

Parents are generally aware of the existence of videogame age ratings, but choose to ignore them or treat them as a mere guideline, according to a new study into the problem of children playing mature games.

The research was carried out by Swiss firm Modulum on behalf of ELSPA, and was presented by Modulum chief executive Jurgen Freund at the ELSPA International Games Summit in London earlier this week.

According to Freund, the study found a high awareness of the existence of videogame age ratings both among young gamers and among their parents - but parents tend to "divorce themselves" from active involvement in deciding what their children play.

"Parents perceive age ratings as a guide but not as a definite prohibition," he commented, going on to mention that while many parents weren't entirely happy with the content of the games being played by their children, few would take action to prevent it.

A larger concern for most parents was that children were spending too much time playing videogames, to the detriment of other activities, rather than specific concerns about content - with most parents adamant that their children are mature enough to handle adult games.

In terms of the attitudes of the children themselves, Modulum found that the 18+ age rating symbol is seen more as a recommendation than as a prohibition.

"The qualitative side of the study revealed that the 18+ symbol is more of a selling point than a warning," according to Freund.

The findings will raise difficult questions for an industry keen to avoid further debacles like last year's Manhunt controversy, when Rockstar's violent 18-rated game was linked in the tabloid press with the murder of 14 year old Stefan Pakeerah in Leicester by a 17 year old acquaintance.

Although the police involved in the case denied that there was any link between the game and the crime, the question of why children had access to adult content like Manhunt was raised nonetheless.

If parents are abdicating responsibility for keeping an eye on what their children are playing, the industry's job becomes that much harder; but according to one retail employee at a major UK entertainment chain, this is nothing new.

"The research is on the money," he told GamesIndustry.biz this morning, "but anyone working in a games store has known this for a long time. The number of copies of Grand Theft Auto I've had to sell to parents accompanied by their ten year old kids, who I had refused to sell a copy to just a few minutes before, is absolutely sickening.


It is obvious to me that many parents just don't want to take the time to see what their kids are playing, watching or listening to. And you can bury your heads in the sand and say that young kids playing violent games doesn't create violence in them, but it's the 'old garbage, in garbage out' adage.

I also think that many parents are oblivous to what negative images and words do to their young kids. And that also goes for parents that subject their kids to physical and verbal abuse.

We are seeing more and more kids in the news with violent behavior attacking their teachers & police and even killing their playmates. I wonder what the percentage is of violent kids who have played video games that were not meant for them at their age.


Chris

p.s. gamesindustry.biz commentary to follow

I await the deluge of desenting views!
Old 06-23-05, 03:31 PM
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Weekly Update

23/06/2005

When the Manhunt controversy broke last year, many people in the videogames industry wondered out loud what further measures publishers and retailers could take to ensure that children don't get their hands on mature content. The industry's rating systems were picked apart, the role of retailers in selling content to underage customers was criticised, and there was discussion of how to reach parents through an education programme aimed at making sure that they were making informed choices about videogames.

At the time, with the scrutiny of the tabloid press directed at the industry and ready to report the slightest misstep to the small-minded hordes of Daily Mail readers in Middle England, nobody wanted to even look sideways at the sacred cow. Ratings symbols weren't prominent enough, retailers weren't wary enough, parents weren't educated enough; never did anyone simply come out and say that in a lot of cases, perhaps the parents just weren't doing their jobs right.

Research presented this week at the ELSPA International Games Summit says that quite clearly, and it makes for grim reading. Although education about game content certainly remains an issue for some parents, Swiss research firm Modulum found that most parents and children are fully aware of the rating system on games and what those ratings mean - and choose to ignore it.

The excuses were obvious. Some parents argued that because their home has a large number of televisions, they couldn't keep track of what their children were playing. Others said that they believed that their child was mature enough to handle the content in 16+ and even 18+ rated videogames. The ratings are a guideline, in their opinion, rather than a prohibition - and for children, an 18+ rating is actually a recommendation.

Suddenly we have research to support the anecdotal evidence that parents don't really care what their children are playing, and it's not a pleasant picture. One retail employee I spoke to this week about the research pointed out that in the last few years, the number of times he has refused to sell an 18+ game to a ten year old child, only to have the child return minutes later with a parent who not only demands the game but complains to the shop staff for not selling it to the child in the first place, is "simply sickening".

Of course parents need to be allowed to make choices for their children, and of course we as an industry need to support those choices by providing them with the information that they require - and by ensuring that we don't override them by selling unsuitable games directly to their children. But what emerges clearly from the Modulum report is that in many instances, parents have simply abdicated their authority for what their children play. Sacred cow be damned; this is terrible, lazy parenting, which uses 18-rated games designed for adult audiences as cheap babysitters. There may be no provable link between violent games and real-life violence (in adults, at least), but it's still a hell of a stretch to say that it's alright for a pre-teen child to play Manhunt, Grand Theft Auto, Chronicles of Riddick or God of War.

At this point, the industry must simply throw up its hands and realise that it can do little more. The ratings system we have is excellent, and while work can be done on educating those parents who genuinely want to learn and making sure that retail is adhering to the ratings, fixing Britain's parenting problem is far beyond the remit of the games industry. Depressing though it may be, this research is worthwhile; next time the tabloid press decides to drag videogames over the coals, the industry can say with a clear conscience that it has tried - and has been ignored by what seems to be a majority of those who most need to hear this message.


Chris
Old 06-23-05, 03:33 PM
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...and yet they blame game companies when their insane "gangsta'd out" kids go and shoot up their neighborhood. God i hate soccer moms.....
Old 06-23-05, 04:28 PM
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These same parent probably have little involvement in most aspects of their kids life, video games is just one aspect.
Old 06-23-05, 04:34 PM
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My 10 year old is lucky to play even a T rated game. There are a few T games that I don't mind like Star Fox but he's never seen an M game in my house. I know he sees more at his friends houses though. The best I can do there is explain that he shouldn't be playing them and steer his friends towards other games. He's going to see this stuff eventually, at least now he's still listening enough to know when things are right and wrong.

It's funny they call them 'mere guidelines' though, that's really what they are. It's not like alcohol, it's supposed to let you know what age range is appropriate. It's a parents decision on where to take it from there, I, for one, choose to pay attention to them.
Old 06-23-05, 04:35 PM
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When did games start to have ratings? Is this going to be like the movies system?
Old 06-23-05, 04:57 PM
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Originally Posted by jeffdsmith
When did games start to have ratings? Is this going to be like the movies system?
Have you been living under a rock?
Old 06-23-05, 05:01 PM
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Originally Posted by jeffdsmith
When did games start to have ratings? Is this going to be like the movies system?
I think that they were implemented a couple of years ago.

Chris
Old 06-23-05, 05:08 PM
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Well Whudathunkit.

... are we borderlining again on the topic of "Parental Responsibility"?

Originally Posted by Homer Simpson
My 10 year old is lucky to play even a T rated game. There are a few T games that I don't mind like Star Fox but he's never seen an M game in my house. I know he sees more at his friends houses though. The best I can do there is explain that he shouldn't be playing them and steer his friends towards other games. He's going to see this stuff eventually, at least now he's still listening enough to know when things are right and wrong.
The only "T" rated game my 7-year-old can play is Super Smash Bros Melee... and we let him play Jungle Beat eventhough its rated "E(10+)".
Old 06-23-05, 05:10 PM
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Chris (mrpayroll)-

I'm glad to hear your stance on this seems to be that it's up to the parents to control. Many people who are conservative and religious seem to want to ban these violent games and hold the software community responsible.

I think it should be exactly like the movies. If a parent wants his/her child to see a R-rated film they can, but the theater won't "sell" it to them on their own.
Old 06-23-05, 05:23 PM
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But videogames are for children - they're toys. Why should I pay attention to a rating? [/sarcasm]
Old 06-23-05, 05:41 PM
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Originally Posted by Green Jello
Chris (mrpayroll)-

I'm glad to hear your stance on this seems to be that it's up to the parents to control. Many people who are conservative and religious seem to want to ban these violent games and hold the software community responsible.

I think it should be exactly like the movies. If a parent wants his/her child to see a R-rated film they can, but the theater won't "sell" it to them on their own.
Watch it GJ, posts like that can get you voted President.
Old 06-23-05, 06:26 PM
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Good because theyre stupid. Not any more violent at times than cartoons...yet just another excuse for bad parents. Has nothing to do with the games people play, the tv they watch or the movies they go to...

Stupid parents have stupid kids....dont believe me...follow a stupid kid home....see if someone stupid does'nt answer the door..
Old 06-23-05, 08:06 PM
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In general I think the ratings on most of the games skew too conservative (a T when a E would be acceptable, an M when a T would be fine), so it devalues the system when there's an actual M-rated game. God of War contains nudity, for example -- something I'm sure some parents who ignore the ratings would freak out about if they saw their kid playing it.
Old 06-23-05, 08:14 PM
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Originally Posted by nickdawgy
Have you been living under a rock?
I suggest you read the title of the thread and you might get what I was driving at.
Old 06-23-05, 08:23 PM
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this article pretty much confirms what we already knew

seriously, if the movie industry wasn't so damn stingy and let video games use their G, PG, PG-13, R rating scale, i bet more parents would pay more attention (at least a few). I mean its for the children, what greater cause is there than that.
Old 06-24-05, 09:47 AM
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Originally Posted by Goldberg74
Well Whudathunkit.

... are we borderlining again on the topic of "Parental Responsibility"?
EXACTLY! This is just like the complaints about The Shield which is TV MA. If parents are willing to use videogames, TV, [fill in the media blank] as a babysitter, then they are responsible for making sure that "babysitter" is appropriate. Do they pick up a wino off the street and flip 'em $50 to watch their kids while they go out for dinner and a movie Saturday night?

A larger concern for most parents was that children were spending too much time playing videogames, to the detriment of other activities, rather than specific concerns about content - with most parents adamant that their children are mature enough to handle adult games.
If THIS is a concern, why aren't the controllers for the console under lock and key? My mom used a kitchen timer for me back in the Intellivision days. After an hour, no more video games.

As Goldberg74 said - "Parental Responsibility". As Todd (Keanu Reeves) once said in Parenthood, "Ya know, you need a license to buy a dog, or drive a car. Hell, you need a license to catch a fish, but they'll let any butt-reaming asshole be a father."

Last edited by rfduncan; 06-24-05 at 09:51 AM.
Old 06-24-05, 06:55 PM
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I find it amazing that, from this report, parents don't seem interested enough in sitting down with the kids to see what videogames they're playing, but instead are upset that their kids aren't getting out more. Well guess what... if you took some time to take little Billy outside to throw the football around, maybe he'd play less games. But because they don't have the time to even passively watch what their kids are doing, I doubt many of them would actively participate with their kids.

I do think stuff like TV and videogames should be rated and in most cases limited to kids, especially when they're in school and have homework and stuff. I always joke with my wife, though, that how are we going to limit our (future) children's videogame playing, when daddy's playing all the time?
Old 06-25-05, 03:55 AM
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Originally Posted by Goldberg74
Well Whudathunkit.

... are we borderlining again on the topic of "Parental Responsibility"?



The only "T" rated game my 7-year-old can play is Super Smash Bros Melee... and we let him play Jungle Beat eventhough its rated "E(10+)".
DK: Jungle Beat is Everyone (10+)? Thats' surprising, the European rating is 3+.
I'm also surprised Smash Bros Melee is T rated (11+ in Europe). Its' no more violent (and still in a cartoony way) than the N64 version which got a 3+ rating from ELSPA.

Last edited by grim_tales; 06-25-05 at 03:59 AM.

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