http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/parents-could-be-reported-to-police-if-children-play-violent-video-games-like-call-of-duty-and-grand-theft-auto-10141697.html


Thoughts?

"Wasting police time" springs to mind. I don't agree with irresponsible parenting, but I also don't agree with a ludicrous overreaction to the problem.

I'm not one to scream "Nanny state" too easily, but now i'm going to. Or would if it was the state doing it, but these are just some over enthusiastic soccer moms.

If parents buy their kids such games, that is their choice. You may not agree with how they raise their kids, but that is their business.

And the obligatory "i played Mortal Kombat 2" when i was ten and turned out fine" disclaimer here

And also yes, charging with wasting police time would not sound like an unreasonable reaction, but i believe it's just an empty threat in an effort to make the parents pay attention to what their kids are playing.

This isn't censorship.

You are correct. You want Censorship? Go to Germany, their censorship laws are very controlling.

So what exactly would you call it then?

Wow, the title of the thread is very misleading.
Did you even read the article, or were you just svckered in by the "shocking" headline?

It's a group of teachers that are threatening to report parents to the police for letting kids play advlt games.

The threats of Nantwich Education Partnership don't really mean anything, except to serve as a reminder that parents should think twice about what their kids are playing.

The lady who wrote the letter was probably also burning rock 'n roll records back in the 60's because the music was corrupting children.

Busybody school teacher telling parents how to raise their children. Even if she did report them to the police, I doubt there is anything they could be charged with.

The way I read it was that if parents let their children play games that are censored 18 plus and don't enforce that censorship, teachers may inform the authorities who will enforce it. This could lead to a precedent where the law could change and make it much more difficult for under 18's to play 18 plus rated games.

The games aren't being removed from distribution, nor is the content of the games being forced to change. Do you also consider movies to be "censored" if they've been rated in the "don't show this to kids" range? (NC-17/X)

Pondering similarities to other situations where parents provide "advlt" things to kids and get punished for it (alcohol, strippers/prosttutes, porm, cigarettes....). On the other hand, I'm not entirely familiar with how Britain does it's rating systems. I know that "R" movies in the US allow for parental permission for those under 17. Looking at the ESRB ratings, I don't see anything similar mentioned under the M rating. But, again, not sure how the ratings are defined in UK.

Ah. I see. You do consider ratings to be censorship.

Yes things here in the UK are rated by the British board of censors, I'm not too sure what the equivalent is in the US. That's why the title of the thread has the word censorship in it, sorry for any confusion.

That's it. Though it reflects on the news organisations who give it airtime.

Interesting. While I do agree that parents who let their kids play such games are scum I dont agree with the teachers thinking they have that sort of power. Part of me hopes the police and social services hysterically laugh at them before hanging up their phones.

As a Ex-Walmart employee that worked in electronics I have seen my share of parents I would love to slap the hell out of. I actually had a woman buy her son (who couldnt be older than 10) GTA San Andreas. The child was with her and that was the game he picked out. I reluctantly got it out and told her about EVERYTHING in it: Murder, six, drugs, gang violence, theft, ect. Her response to me, and I'm telling you her exact quote, was, "Well, he's got to learn it from somewhere." I came so close to throwing that game at her and calling her everything under the sun.

On the flip side I had another parent in similar fashion have a child that also wanted a game of similar quality (dont remember which one). I told the father everything in it and he told his kid that they were crazy if they thought he was getting that for them and he didnt care if their friends played it or not.

Thought Jack made this thread....

Anyways, I read about this yesterday and my opinion on the matter is pretty simple. The school has no right to tell a parent what their kids can do on their own time. The school is there to teach; not preach. Do I think it's okay for kids to play GTA or COD? No, but that's just my opinion and my opinion is worth [censored] to another persons life, and vice versa.

Yes, I kind of think it would be a waste of time for teachers to report such activity to the police who I don't really think would want to waste man hours trying to enforce a rating system on video games. I can potentially see social services and the like getting involved in the future however.

We have the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entertainment_Software_Rating_Board that rates all games, music, films.
But there are no laws that they enforce. It is nothing more than a suggestion for parents to know what the content is like. The BBFC seems to be the same. There is no inherit censorship.
advlt content cannot be sold to minors, but they are allowed to own it and use it as much as they want. GTA is not contraband.

If social services could prove the child was being harmed, than they could intervene... But no one has ever proved that games or movies are bad for you.
Nantwich Education Partnership are basically http://i.imgur.com/91sn32Q.jpg?fb.

But when they made me read The Knights of the Cross in 7th grade and learn how Jurand was captured, held in a dungeon, had his right hand and tongue cut off and his only remaining eye burned out, that was totally fine.

I don't think irresponsible parents who babysit their kids with M rated games should be punished. I do however think 'video game education seminars' would be good. Some of you may laugh at the notion, but not all of us humans are lovers of video games, so it'd be good to enlighten those who want to raise their kids in a more traditional way can be properly informed. It never ceases to amaze me how many people today still think video games are all just mario and donkey kong harmless fun. For advlts, M rated games are harmless fun but kids can be very impressionable, so for those who aren't confident in their kid's maturity, it'd be great for them to be properly informed if they're unaware where to begin.

I fully agree with your idea to educate na?ve parents in regard to modern day video games. As you say it's not all Super Mario and the like and some games really just shouldn't be played by 10 year olds whose parents are completely oblivious as to what is contained in them.

We had to read Lord of the Flies. Not exactly a pleasant story either.

Still, books do tend to be a lot less graphics than games And you don't actively take part in the action with them either.

I'm all for educating parents, but if someone doesn't care enough to notice 16+ or 18+ tag and find out what it means, I doubt they'll be interested in video game seminars. Still, it couldn't hurt if it was talked about sometimes (many teachers could use a crash course as well). My mom usually does it in one-on-one talks, but then again, she always gets saddled with the most problematic students, so her contact with parents is more frequent and personal.

It really isn't censorship. Censorship would be an outright ban. An unsuccessful attempt at censorship would be a rating system.

This is just a manifestation of a certain segment of our population having a better grasp on what is the best and proper way to raise children than the rest of us have.

Basically, since they know more than us, care more about the future than us and are more intelligent than us, we should just shut up and do as they say. That way all the ills of the world would just magically disappear.

Let Big Brother raise you children for you. Allow yourself to become some kind of government pet.

I don't see what your problem is. Things will be better.

For the love of Mara, instead of checking out what their children do in the internet they still waging this war against video game, thank the divines the only problem here in Brazil are games prices.

I certainly don't agree with the school response that they will report parents to the police for letting their children play Call of Duty or GTA. But parents also can't simply treat their children however they want, either.

Parents don't gain some sort of special knowledge the moment their child is born. Sometimes parents don't have a clue about how to raise their child. Sometimes it is actually true that people know more than we do, or are, gasp, subject-matter experts in their field.

I saw Sally steal a cookie from the cookie jar. Her parents are raising a thief! Get the police on the phone, they're going to want to hear about this!