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My dad let's my little brother play CoD, he's 6.

A good parent will teach children that fictional media is fine to be enjoyed as long as you realise the difference from real life.

Mine did, and I played violent games and watched violent movies from a very young age. Turned out fine.

Parents just need to do a better job and stop blaming media.
 
The most violent I played was Mortal Kombat, later on in my pre-teens I got into GTA. As an adult I'd like to think I'm stable, most people consider me a nice, mature guy, and I'm far from being violent, I'm very much against war, the death penalty, and don't believe in resolving issues with any kind of violence or bloodshed. My brother was 10 when he got into Call of Duty, same with San Andreas (he prefers rural areas to cities), and I would say he's even more peaceful than I, very sensitive and caring, he actually defended (verbally) another kid from being picked on by his own friends, not falling prey to peer pressure, which is something I was proud of.

I suppose I attribute it to my mother, despite her downfalls, she was never a pushy mom, never told me I was wrong and she was right just because she's an adult, never hit me, always apologized when she was wrong, and tried to bring me up to be socially aware, she does the same and goes further with my other brother.

On the flip side, I have a buddy who happens to be incredibly violent and has a short temper, telling me he literally planned to kill his girlfriend's former boss for making her cry, he hates video games, and his dad was verbally and physically abusive to him and his mother growing up.
 
demolitio said:
Yes, and the parents can...you know...actually do their job and make sure he/she knows the difference between games and reality, right and wrong, swearing, manners, etc.
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"Look Johnny, this terrorist piece of shit you are burning alive is just a videogame character, don't be disturbed and do not burn your brother Jimmy ok?"

I get your point, but for me there still exists some limits of how early you introduce realistic killing simulators, porn, horror movies and such to kids. And a six year old is definitely below that limit. And that's part of good parenting in my opinion.
 
Foliorum Viridum said:
Parents just need to do a better job and stop blaming media.
Click to expand...

Exactly the point I forgot. It's up to the parents yet when they make a mistake and realize it's too late, suddenly it's everyone else that's responsible for ruining their kid.

People need to take responsibility for their choices and parents aren't immune from that. That's something I see dwindling away every single day.

By the way, I think Black Ops 2 might make the kid interested for the future if anything...lol

Edit: And calling COD a realistic killing simulator is a bit of a jump. :P Clearly this kid is subjected to the wrong games. I DO agree SOME games are too early for that age and I wouldn't allow certain games at that age, but it still comes down to the parents ability to teach the kid what's right and wrong, real and fake, what's fun in a game is a tragedy in real life, etc.

Oh, and my grandma played games nonstop which made her the coolest grandma ever except she taught my brother swear words when she'd get frustrated at him for beating her in Dr. Mario. Now that's an issue on her end. :D
 
MARNEY said:
as long as it's in limited doses, not too worried about a 6-7 year old playing a M rated fps. what does worry me is this kid's first gaming experience is the CoD franchise. can't help but feel a little sad... now at least with my son i showed a little judgement, when he was 6 yrs old he cut his teeth on Resistance fall of man. now that's good parenting.
;-)
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why, no. no it isn't.
 
Again, i have no idea whether playing CoD could really harm a kid.
Personally, i don't think i would let my son play it at 6 because of some disturbing scenes. I think shooting stuff is always rather abstract, but torchering and some hand to hand kills can be pretty graphic. I think GoW 3 will scare him more. But i do let my 4 year old watch Planet Earth. Where animals eat eachother. I always ask him in certain scary scenes in animations: do you think it's scary? If he says yes, i'll usually skip it, but sometimes i'll just let him watch it and talk to him about why this scene isn't so scary at all (when i know the scene allready).

I rather let a kid see and discover what's out there than to keep him from all those things till he's sixteen.
That can fuck up a kid seriously. I see this happen a lot with kids who had a really protected shielded childhood in a religious family. And before you know it your daughter is the next Belladonna :p

What would be harmfull imo is when you just put a kid behind the tv for half a day. They need attention.
If you decide to play CoD with a kid, make sure you're there to watch his reactions. Ask him about the game, about what it did to him. Talk to him about the differences in reality and fantasy.
 
demolitio said:
And calling COD a realistic killing simulator is a bit of a jump.
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I remember when I was 6-7 and I thought some Amiga games looked realistic... it's all in the perception of the kid and the games of today can be described "realistic".

I remember playing Doom for the first time ever and it was THE leap of violence in videogames. I was scared shitless and we played in turns with my friends when it got too hectic for the person playing.

I turned out decent as well, but there were days when we would fight with my friends after watching Rocky and so on. We always played the films and games after we watched them.
 
I'm the youngest of three, and so I've seen and enjoyed a lot of stuff supposedly not suited for someone my age back then and ended up just fine.
 
Parents can let their kids play whatever they want (let them set themselves on fire really, I don't care). It's when they do so, and then complain that the material isn't suitable for young children that I start to get bothered.
 
The thought makes me really uncomfortable. If it was my kid, I wouldn't let him/her anywhere near that shit. When I was six, the most violent video game I had played (and this was 1986, keep in mind) was Super Mario Brothers. In fact, I didn't get around to playing anything with gore in it until 1992, with Wolfenstein 3D and Ultima VII, and I was 12, more than capable of handling it.

(My mom might have disagreed if she knew there was a lesbian love scene in the latter but what she didn't know couldn't hurt her...)
 
I played Wolfenstein 3D when I was 6.
I'm from and still live in Germany. I think that's an important point.

I played all kinds of violent games in my younger years, yet I always DOES afraid of anything :(

Never even once in my live thought that I should kill people or go on a rampage or something like that.
Then again, I never had the possibility to call people f-words and n-words behind the anonymity of the internet when I was young.
 
Poor kid. I started playing Duke Nukem 3D when I was six, and that is one of the best FPS's ever. But he'll just have memories of playing CoD #20.
 
When I was a kid I played games like Mortal Kombat, Carmageddon, Doom...and I turned out pretty well; I mean, I'm not a violent person and people that know me say I'm polite and calm, so those games didn't have any effect on me as a kid. I mean, as long as your parents make sure that you can see the line between a videogame and real life, there should be no problem.
 
I know we're all free to parent as we choose, but I in no way think it's responsible to let kids play mature rated games under the age of 10yrs old. Hell, my kids won't be touching them until they're at least in high school. And I thought I was liberal...sheesh.
 
Never bee shocked by a game when i was young, but even the gore stuff back then was totally unrealistic (Doom etc). Movies however, seen some i shouldn't have, even when i was ~12.

With games getting more realistic, i'm not sure my case is still relevant, and sure there's different level of sensibility, but i wouldn't let a 6yrs old play COD anyway. Tons of games are better suited for him.
 
It just depends on the child.

Some childs wont care about what they see, while others will be scared shitless. Though I wouldnt let my Child play Games on the Internet. I guess this will make them "rage".

When I have childs, I would play some old SNES-Classics with them and maybe Games I grew up with. Btw. how is it nowadays? I remember when I was in primary school, we played mostly SNES and all kinds of Games. It didnt really matter what we played. Whether it was GTA 1 (at the end of primary school) or Mario (at the beginning of primary school). Somehow it was really broad and children didnt really care much that a game is violent.
 
I wrote a research paper on how violence in the media affects developing minds. Bottom line, it is bad parenting to let your underage child play violent games.
 
I was watching Robocop, and anything else on HBO at that age. While other kids were watching The Smurfs, I was watching Tales From The Crypt. I was eagerly going to the arcade to play Mortal Kombat, and my parents let me get the GEN version instead of the SNES version. Its parent discretion for a reason. Its really not for everyone, but some kids can definitely handle it and they're fine. Some kids can't, and shouldn't.

That said, my parents didn't leave me alone to grow up in front of the TV by myself. My mom was home, and I always played games with my brothers. It was obviously fantasy. While we enjoyed make believe violence, my brothers and I were all enrolled in martial arts classes taught by a strict South Korean traditional instructor. He emphasized ethics, morality, the martial arts code, restraint, and we clearly knew the difference between fantasy and reality. We were all among the nicest kids at our school, and violent video games had no negative impact on us.

Call of Duty isn't going to ruin this kid if he has good parents, or even average parents. I'd be much more weary about letting them run wild on a computer unsupervised than I would be worried about Call of Duty.
 
I let my 7-year old play games with maybe a bit too much violence, but no way I'd even let her watch COD. Enemies crawling on the ground (and an achievement if you stab them on the ground!), snapping the necks of attack dogs, the chilly act of Bofors-ing from above... naw, that's not going to fly.

The reason I'm not banning everything is because my hippie parents wouldn't even allow me to have toy guns or read super-hero comics because it would make me gunhappy and prone to fighting. And as a co-founder of a paintball/airsoft park and a store that sells everything from machetes to tactical equipment and as someone who spends his spare time bouncing between parenting, playing remarkably violent video games and training Krav Maga... I'd say that shielding might have backfired if anything. But there are levels, and it's up to me as a parent to recognize those and react properly. COD falls below the acceptable level.

What I REALLY watch for are any signs that she has been exposed to porn or borderline material. That can really mess with a kid's head. Nothing so far, and I'll annihilate anyone who exposes her to that.
 
Played videogames from the age of 7 / 8 and watched violent movies from about 9 onwards.

Caused no issues whatsoever, my kid brothers have been playing games since around the same age and watching movies as well.


There where restrictions, nothing sexual or overly gorey.


People are overly sensitive these days and like to jump on a scapegoat to excuse the issues of society, movies, music and games.

Which is bullshit.
 
I've been playing mainstream games with graphic violence since their conception and I grew up just fine.
 
"I played these games and I turned out okay, I'm not a violent person."
That is a weak defense IMO.
Sure, kids don't go out on shooting sprees because of CoD. But that doesn't mean that playing M rated games has no effect on the developing mind whatsoever. There's more to it than just separating murdering and non murdering people.
 
CoD is pretty tame as far as violence goes. Sure you're shooting people, but theres not that much blood and gore.

Kids are exposed to that kind of stuff all the time these days anyway. As long as its supervised i dont see the problem.

Id be more concerned about all the swearing that happens in FPSs.

Imagine you get a call because your 4 year old called his teacher a "cocksucking mother fucker".
 
carfo said:
I wrote a research paper on how violence in the media affects developing minds. Bottom line, it is bad parenting to let your underage child play violent games.
Click to expand...

I'm going to need more than you telling me you wrote a research paper to take it as fact that such a thing is bad parenting.
 
Jockel said:
"I played these games and I turned out okay, I'm not a violent person."
That is a weak defense IMO.
Sure, kids don't go out on shooting sprees because of CoD. But that doesn't mean that playing M rated games has no effect on the developing mind whatsoever. There's more to it than just separating murdering and non murdering people.
Click to expand...

It's not a weak defense. You're claiming that it affects kids negatively, and we're living examples that prove it doesn't.
 
Jockel said:
"I played these games and I turned out okay, I'm not a violent person."
That is a weak defense IMO.
Click to expand...

Completely agree.

I'd rather hear people's input on how they'll raise their kids because I'm guessing a lot of them don't have any yet. Nothing wrong with that at all but 'I turned out okay!!' really is the weakest of weak arguments.

It's bad enough parents 'raise' their kids on like ten Disney movies in a row for the whole day at like one let alone letting a six year old play Call of Duty probably for hours on end after school.

(I'm more upset about the lack of parenting in general than the perception of bad parenting.)
 
Jockel said:
"I played these games and I turned out okay, I'm not a violent person."
That is a weak defense IMO.
Sure, kids don't go out on shooting sprees because of CoD. But that doesn't mean that playing M rated games has no effect on the developing mind whatsoever. There's more to it than just separating murdering and non murdering people.
Click to expand...

what if the parents of the people who turned out fine, were monitoring their development and looking for any harm the media had caused, and recognizing that no harm had been caused allowed their kids to continue watching/enjoying violent games?
 
I think a lot of parents still just see video games as toys. And to be fair, a lot of video games are aimed at young boys, and if something is aimed at 13-15 year olds, it will only be more attractive to their younger brothers etc.

6 is far too young for a violent military video game in my opinion.
 
Impeccable said:
Completely agree.

I'd rather hear people's input on how they'll raise their kids because I'm guessing a lot of them don't have any yet. Nothing wrong with that at all but 'I turned out okay!!' really is the weakest of weak arguments.

It's bad enough parents 'raise' their kids on like ten Disney movies in a row for the whole day at like one let alone letting a six year old play Call of Duty probably for hours on end after school.

(I'm more upset about the lack of parenting in general than the perception of bad parenting.)
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Oh, there's a biiiiig difference between letting kids play violent games and letting them do it all the time.

I think that's the sound of a goalpost being moved.
 
Jockel said:
"I played these games and I turned out okay, I'm not a violent person."
That is a weak defense IMO.
Sure, kids don't go out on shooting sprees because of CoD. But that doesn't mean that playing M rated games has no effect on the developing mind whatsoever. There's more to it than just separating murdering and non murdering people.
Click to expand...

Spot on.
 
Jacobi said:
Killing people in realistic games isn't a problen, BUT DONT LET HIM WATCH PORN
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Unless it's lesbian porn of coarse. The only problem is that seeing the dick might turn him gay. He would have to play ten times as many military shooters to compensate for the gay if he saw a penis. (sarcasm natch)
 
Brazil said:
Oh, there's a biiiiig difference between letting kids play violent games and letting them do it all the time.

I think that's the sound of a goalpost being moved.
Click to expand...


You think a parent who is okay with letting a six year old play Call of Duty is likely to allow them to only play half an hour a day?

The kid is six. SIX.

When we start nearing maybe around ten, eleven I can see it being possible for a child to have the maturity of understanding.

... six.
 
Brazil said:
It's not a weak defense. You're claiming that it affects kids negatively, and we're living examples that prove it doesn't.
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Uh huh, and how do you define negative? Or hell, remove the negative, how do people actually know how it has or hasn't affected them?

When I view footage from a missile strike I think a lot about the stuff that surrounds it, the aftermath and such. I have a pretty complex view of the shit surrounding the strike, from politics to human suffering and sometimes the necessity of the strike. I have to wonder then how kids who have fired off countless drone-rounds at "bad guys" would view similar real life footage. Since it has been made into entertainment once, does it remain just entertainment? Not saying I have an answer to this, but I think saying that "it doesn't affect kids negatively (or any way at all)" IS a weak response. And certainly when it's based on just personal experience.
 
Foliorum Viridum said:
A good parent will teach children that fictional media is fine to be enjoyed as long as you realise the difference from real life.

Mine did, and I played violent games and watched violent movies from a very young age. Turned out fine.

Parents just need to do a better job and stop blaming media.
Click to expand...

I'm fine with my kids understanding the difference, I just don't want them to see what it looks like when somebody's head explodes from a shotgun blast.


oddly though, I was fine with them watching me play Dark Souls. I think it wasn't that gory, and the relatively dark fantasy setting combined seemed to make it ok to me.
 
Brazil said:
It's not a weak defense. You're claiming that it affects kids negatively, and we're living examples that prove it doesn't.
Click to expand...

Maybe it does affect the kids negatively. Maybe it doesn't. It depends on the kid imo.

I'd still wouldn't want me 6 year old daughter or my son, who at this age have a difficulty distinguishing reality from imagination to play this kind of games. 6 year old kids don't perceive the world like you or me.
 
mrklaw said:
I'm fine with my kids understanding the difference, I just don't want them to see what it looks like when somebody's head explodes from a shotgun blast.
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and that's fine, of course. that doesn't automatically mean that anyone who feels differently is a bad parent. and frankly, if a parent isn't really keeping tabs on what their kids get up to, the games they play and the films they watch are quite likely going to be very minor concerns compared to the other stuff they get up to. I just want parents to pay attention. Any parent paying attention I'm going to defer to on whatever level of violence they feel is appropriate for their kids. It's not right for me to see my parents called bad parents, when I've turned out well. That's a parent's job, raising their kid well. If the end result is good I don't think you really get to slander those parents.

and Klaw, I'm not directing that at you.
 
pslayer666 said:
Maybe it does affect the kids negatively. Maybe it doesn't. It depends on the kid imo.

I'd still wouldn't want me 6 year old daughter or my son, who at this age have a difficulty distinguishing reality from imagination to play this kind of games. 6 year old kids don't perceive the world like you or me.
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You would just be a bad parent who doesn't want his child to only dream of being a soldier who dies in agony far away from home for the benefit of some rich fuck.
 
Acinixys said:
CoD is pretty tame as far as violence goes. Sure you're shooting people, but theres not that much blood and gore.

Kids are exposed to that kind of stuff all the time these days anyway. As long as its supervised i dont see the problem.
Click to expand...

You don't need much blood and gore to get that stabbing a crawling enemy is violent.

And honestly, it's the moments without the blood and gore, where you do something and death just happens somewhere distant, that trouble me the most.

And the "kids are exposed to that stuff all the time these days" is such a garbage argument. Avoiding the problem because of the problem, yikes.
 
It really comes down to parenting and peer groups. If his dad is great at teaching him that violence and that kind of language is improper in real life and keeping him away from the wrong kind of friends and the kid gets it he should be fine. Make sure the kid knows not to play with weapons and explosives, maybe demonstrate the negative consequences in a way the kid will understand without scarring them. Reward positive behavior so that negative behavior isn't needed.

Still, considering how difficult it is at that age to distinguish fantasy from reality, it would be best to hold off on the realistic violent games for a while.
 
Well I can only speak for myself and the things I have experienced or read. But I played a few violent games in my childhood, and I do know that it stuck with me. It wasn't me making me any more aggressive at all; but it did leave an impression in my mind. Quite a few scenes gave me nightmares. Of course, with a relatively imprecise science like psychology you can't really point at a symptom and say "yup, that's it. That's from playing Doom 2." But I would say that playing these games did affect me in one way or the other.
I believe it's certain that there is a negative effect on children, but of course psychological resilience makes a big difference and the coping skills of affected children will vary greatly. I don't want to bore you guys with neurobiological stuff or my work experiences; but I'm positive that violent media do leave an impression on young kids.
 
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