In the UK School principals threaten parents with police if kids play 18 rated games
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In the UK School principals threaten parents with police if their kids play 18 rated games.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3016596/Head-teachers-report-parents-police-social-services-let-children-play-Grand-Theft-Auto-Call-duty.html
Is this the right or wrong thing to do?
[ame]www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDUW6v7seS0[/ame]
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3016596/Head-teachers-report-parents-police-social-services-let-children-play-Grand-Theft-Auto-Call-duty.html
Is this the right or wrong thing to do?
[ame]www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDUW6v7seS0[/ame]
Replies
Enforcing the rule is good. Threatening is bad.
IF they know games I played when I was 6, and movies I watched, they would probabaly either die from hearth attack (if they are serious, which is honestly inconsiderable for me) or couldn't tell anything if they are just hypocrites, trying to get more power.
I'm against any rules regarding such things. It's parents responsibility raise their children not state.
I really hate all those white knights warriors ;/
Well, beating somebody is also a way of enforcing and that doesn't justify it.
Anyway I don't think that's the problem. The teachers can call whoever they want. The social services are the ones to realize the stupidity of the situation and just let it be. Is not about is this going to be known or not, but rather is this supposed to be punishable or not. If it is then the teachers are doing nothing wrong (well, is kind of foolish, but not wrong) and if it is not punishable then there's no problem and these teachers are just making noise as they probably are.
I haven't read all the article though, just the headlines.
In work though I have parents come up to be asking for games that "don't have too much killing" in them. Or the funnest is when the come up with some Disney kids film and a copy of GTA IV.
Although I will say it's annoying how vilified video games have become, the kid who played Manhunt and bludgeoned his friend or the London riots spring to mind, ("Now kids are playing stuff like GTA, no wonder they're rioting!" srsly?)
....now hand me that copy of Hotline Miami"
I don't know how social service is like in the UK, but here in the US it's no joke. I agree that parents should be parents and shouldn't purchase rated M games for their kids, but....take their kids away from them for that?!?!?!?!
My younger brother is a pretty introverted person, when he was a kid, he was very introverted. Well, his teacher assumed that he was being neglected at home. She went through proper channels and was going to contact Social Services, my parents freaked the F*ck out and than brought judgement down on that teacher, lol.
Anyways, I find it annoying seeing parents purchasing rated M games for their clearly under aged kid, but contacting social service for that is like going full Nuclear War on what was probably a family doing fine.
Me and my 2 daughters play loads of games together, we have a great time and its a good way for us to bond and spend time together. We also watch documentaries on how movies and games are made, we talk about controversial topics, we talked about gamergate and we talk about sexism, racism, we talk about all the real world issues. They are now 13 and 10 years old, doing great at school and I have no doubts will go to university and lead successful lives! They are also very level headed and 2 of the most caring people anyone could ever meet.
Social Services only care if there is genuine neglect for the child. And ultimately the law in this case is on the side of the parent... It's illegal for anybody to buy an 18 cert game specifically for a minor, it's not illegal for a parent to let their child play that game if the parent bought it for themselves. The police wouldn't even bother to file the report.
Heck, blowing each other up with RPGs and BFGs were some of the best memories of family bonding when I was little, and those games first introduced me to the whole idea of modding and making games for a living with their level editors. (I also played Mario Party, the Sims 2, and Zelda, so it wasn't all hardcore violence
So yeah, I think it should be left to the parents to decide whether or not their kids are too young for a game or can't tell the difference between having fun in a fictional computer game versus being a real-life sociopath with a lack of empathy.
Some parents today have become lazy, complacent and reliant on the nanny state because they can't discipline their children. The parents should be the ones in charge of discipline at home, keep the schools out of it.
Beginning to work 40 hour weeks as a young adult, I'm starting to see why some families do have weaker familial relations than others due to time constraints. Perhaps mostly due to having to work several jobs in a given day, etc.
I always felt bad for the dude who had to animate that eye poking scene.
It's by far the most uncomfortable I ever felt playing a video game.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-04-02-he-suddenly-became-incredibly-sullen-angry-and-frustrated-he-was-10
There's NO correlation or causation linked between violent video games, and violent behaviour.
Shouldn't we be more concerned about keeping them away from more harmful things?
Like drugs, gangs, or prostitution?
I'm not sure that they say there is. Mature content can have more impact on a child than making them violent. The teacher in the link I posted says...
"I taught a child two years ago who had been a high achiever for a long time. Then, when he got to year five he suddenly became incredibly sullen, very angry, frustrated and exhausted. We brought in a therapist to speak to him. Eventually it came out that he was watching lots of Let's Plays of Resident Evil and other horror games. He had access to some he would play as well on his tablet. He told me he would be playing games at night and watching Let's Plays, and he said lots of them scared him and he couldn't sleep because of it. Of course, his parents should be intervening because of that. And his parents did once we raised it. But it still took him a long time to be able to sleep properly. He was 10."
So some stupid correlation based on 1 teachers observation.
Guess where aggressive behaviour in children REALLY comes from: PROBLEMS AT HOME.
Most of what we read regarding violent games are conservatives, and anti-vaccination crowds. Basically a large group of people who have absolutely NO clue what they're talking about.
This is a proper article that actually sites an OXFORD UNIVERSITY study, with a peer reviewed psychology journal that says THERE IS NO EFFECT:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/11507576/Study-finds-no-evidence-violent-video-games-make-children-aggressive.html
SO that teacher can go fuck himself.
It's like saying "Cats cause Cancer"
Then show statistics for a group of cancer patients who are also cat owners... then say LOOK! SEE!! CATS CAUSE CANCER! CUZ OF ALL OF THOSE CAT OWNERS WHO HAVE CANCER!!!
And then citing Jenny McCarthy as your source for that wonderful tidbit of misinformation.
As usual, the loudest, least reasonable voice dominates.
Did you read his letter? He doesn't say that games make kids aggressive. In one case in his experience a child was angry through loss of sleep after being scarred at looking at content he wasnt mature enough to process. The teacher seems pretty balanced and fair to me and in no way merits that aggression.
Regardless of that he's also imposing his visions on the parents of his district which certainly merits an aggressive negative response in language
Hopefully the social services will handle these cases fairly and only intervene if there is a general neglect of the kids in that household.
A teacher is actually doing his job right if he does more than just teach school lessons. Teachers ideally should care for the kids' well being on top of teaching. So I understand where this comes from. The teachers' motives are probably honourable.
A letter might not do much, and yes, parents might be too busy to do much about it, but tbh they have the entire weekend to talk to their kids about games. It's not rocket science to do an hour of googling about the games your kid plays and form an opinion on them (for reference, most people watch TV several hours per day, is it really asking so much to invest a little of that time into watching your kid play a game and getting to know those games?) The letter might get the parent thinking about this at least, and if the parents don't give a shit about what their children do, the social services need to do it. That's why they exist.
My view on violence in games has changed a lot over the past 5-6 years. I used to think it wasn't such a big deal, but part of me was always uneasy about kids killing prostitutes in GTA and such. Kids are potentially not able to see it as the parody it is (perhaps) intended as (?). There is a good reason for the state protecting children up to a point. Of course it's chiefly the parents' responsibility, but if parents fail, I'm in favour of the state providing a second line of safety for the kids.
I accept that playing GTA doesn't turn you into a school killer. But that doesn't automatically justify giving it to kids, right.
AFAIK scientists currently think that the brain isn't fully developed until you're 25 years old. Because of this, I would even be in favour of introducing a 25+ rating and accordingly declare people mature only when they reach that age.
12, 14, 16 year olds are kids and have no business playing violence-porn games. And I am justified in having an opinion on that because when those kids grow up, I will have to deal with them, if not directly, then indirectly, as voters, as parents, as collegues, as union members, etc. No one is an island these days.
Using threats in this way is a form of coercion, not "enforcement". If they want to campaign for legislation, they can be my guest, but these coercive tactics are downright unethical.
From the letter posted above.
"Some people seem to think this is the first thing teachers have done, that their monocles have fallen out into their cups of tea and they've gone, 'goodness me, this is horrific, we must write a letter.'
At my school we've invited parents in to talk about safety online and video games. Increasingly, younger teachers like me grew up with games. I've had chats with parents about games. This letter, this threat, it is a bit clumsy, but teachers have tried. I've seen in our newsletter, 'it's coming to our attention that lots of children are playing games that are perhaps inappropriate for them. Please be sure to check any games your child plays are appropriate.' Teachers have tried that. This dialogue has been attempted and had limited success. The teachers haven't started with threats. This is a last ditch, albeit clumsy attempt to try and change things, because it is having a detrimental effect on some children."
It is a 'nanny state' move for sure, but some of these kids need a nanny because they don't seem to have a mum or dad who gives a shit about them.
The best approach is talking to parents but it only works if the parents actually care and don't use media as a babysitter. Interesting article on penny arcade....
http://penny-arcade.com/news/post/2015/04/08/i-spoke-at-our-pta-about-games
Here at CA we are also involved with...
http://www.gamesambassadors.org.uk/ and are looking to help out at schools to help educate about games, talk to PTAs etc.
Anyway, that's my lot on this.
A bit clairvoyant there are you. We all have fun talking about how we as kids played violent games, watched violent movies and read scary books. But for the most we all turned out pretty okay.