Have Parents or the ESRB Failed Children?

Original Gamer: "People have been critical of the ESRB as of late. Some consider their ratings as not sufficient enough to explain what games actually contain. Do they really need to go into detail or should parents do their job of being knowledgeable about video games?

[SactoGamer]

Parents. The ESRB does its job. It's up to the parents (and retailers) to do theirs.

[Majin-vegeta]

What he said +bub.

[MariaHelFutura]

Society has failed children.

[damnyouretall]

yeah man. i know young teenage parents that let their kids see and hear the wrong things like violent m rated games. now when these warped lil kids grow up and have children, well. society has failed hard and it will get worst

[FunAndGun]

the Idiocracy effect.

hello, welcome to Costco, I love you.

[jwk94]

Not really, I played M rated games when i was a child. You can give your kid an M rated game so long as you teach them right from wrong and that this game is just fiction then everything should be good.

[Pozzle]

Definitely parents. The ESRB does it's job...it isn't up to them to prevent children from playing games. They put the appropriate warnings in place...it's up to parents and retailers to enforce that.

But I also think that perhaps more could be done to teach parents that ratings on a game box are just as important as ratings on any other media. I've seen so many parents in game stores buy their nagging kid a game, without even glancing at the rating, or even bothering to check what the game is about. There are too many parents that still see games as a kids' hobby, and don't realize just how far games have come in terms or depicting realism and violence/sex in the past fecade or so.

[PirateThom]

I was once in a Game store in Belfast, as you do, and this parent came in with her kid and asked one of the staff for a copy of inFamous 2, I thought nothing of this until she turned to the kid and asked "is that the one you want?".

Now, not to knock the kid for having good taste, but he was no older than about 9 or 10. The PEGI rating on the box CLEARLY states 16+

I think too many parents, the non-gaming sect anyway, still see games in two lights, some seem them as ultraviolent and kids should never be allowed near them and the other seem them as playthings and toys and don't even notice rating or worry about them... inFamous definitely isn't the most violent game out there, but there's definitely language and themes that warrant the rating.

[Yodagamer]

Parents, thats for sure, what i hate is when those parents that buy the game for their children and complain about the violence later on, i just wanna say "READ THE BOX"

[lorianguy]

That's my beef! They buy the kid a game like Call of Duty, then when their kid becomes obsessed with guns and violence they blame the game!

[tiffac008]

My mom actually purchased God of War: Chain of Olympus (PSP) for my kid brother because one of his friend said it was a great game (Of course it is! But I'm talking about kids who are below 10 here).

So when I saw my kid brother playing the game, I said to my mom, did you know that game has some very explicit content? My mom was like shock and I showed her the back of the box with the ESRB rating on it.

Let's just say after that my brother went back to playing Naruto instead.

[GTRrocker]

You people need to get real. I played Doom nonstop when I was 9 and I turned out just fine. I think they need to go by IQ instead of age. If your kid is stupid, make him read a book instead of playing a video game.

[UltimateIdiot911]

Not IQ but maturity. And you can't expect every kid to turn out fine.

The issue here is that parents aren't making informed decisions because they don't take video games seriously or they assume the worse.

[Pozzle]

One person's experience doesn't equal all people's experience though. Just because one kid is able to play Doom and turn out fine, doesn't mean all kids will. (Not to mention, games have evolved and become more realistic since the days of Doom). Different people respond to things differently, and it's up to parents to monitor their children to see if they can handle such games. The sad thing is that many parents don't, so they end up blaming games when their kids respond aggressively/negatively to games, or end up having nightmares.

[Pikajew]

I had those parents who always looked at the rating. But when I got a n64 with golden eye and I was 7 they didn't look than. But my parents never let me have a rated M game till I was 17 :/ but I still played some around 16 and 15

If I am at a game store and see a parent buying an M rates game for their kid I tell them about the rating

I like a lot more T rated games than M rated games

[Reborn]

Yeah, parents.

A lady in work got her 9 year old son MW3. She had to endure the wrath of other colleagues. It's ridiculous.

In the end, he didn't get it.... or did he?

[Prototype]

If the parents do their job, we wouldn't need a rating system on games to begin with. I grew up on violent games and movies, yet I still knew the difference between fantasy and real life; in a game its called reset (or turn it off), in real life its called jail or prison.

[ChickeyCantor]

No,
Ratings are there to INFORM people.

[Emilio_Estevez]

Def the parents job, at the COD launch there were a ton of kids there with parents to get an M rated game. I don't think they really know what's in these games and the kind of things people say online.

[GraveLord]

Parents.
Well there aren't really that many kids games on PS3/360 so parents usually buy whatever their kids want. Usually its rated M. Well there are a couple now with the Move and Kinect.....

[UltimateSin]

Parents. Saw a parent buy an M rated game for her 11 or so year old son. She clearly saw on the cover that it was an M rated game and pointed it out to her son. Still bought it anyways. Parents just don't want to have to deal with their kids being angry and not getting their way.

[ChickeyCantor]

When parents think others should look out for their kids...I hope they don't breed ever again...EVER!