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Children and Violent
Games - Laez
Violence
has existed in forms of entertainment for millennia, whether we’re
talking about John Wayne movies, the gladiators in ancient Just like the television and movie
industries, the videogame industry knows that violence sells, hence
they must make violent games in order to make money – it’s common
sense. Unlike movies and television, however, video
games are considered by many people to be just for kids. Many of the people who believe this are parents,
and many of those parents, because of this idea, believe that all
games are made for children at any age, thus allowing their children
to own and play these violent games too easily.
These very same parents would not likely allow their young
children to see an R rated movie or to watch a violent prime time
television show; they know that they are not appropriate for their
children. In one paper the following facts were found:
For older gamers, these numbers are not disturbing. They expect these violent acts, and can also
understand the context in which the violent acts take place. However, when these numbers are associated with
young children it is obvious that there is a problem. Children are impressionable by everything; therefore,
they shouldn’t be allowed to play these games any more than they should
be allowed access to violent movies.
Nonetheless, they are allowed to play violent video games. The video games industry has already implemented a
ratings system which rates games in terms of what audience they are
appropriate for. In theory,
the industries efforts at self-regulation should have been enough
to stop young children from obtaining inappropriate games, as it is
shown clearly on the front of each video game package what audience
the game has been deemed appropriate for so that parents and stores
would be able to prevent children from buying inappropriate games.
However, many people are unaware of the fact that there even
is a ratings system. Most retail chains that sell video games will no longer
sell mature rated games to minors.
What’s wrong with this, though it enforces the ratings system,
is that too often parents will come right back and buy the game for
their child anyway. In the
end, enforcing the system doesn’t help the problem anyway.
The best solution is to make sure the parents know what they
are buying their children and to try to deter them from buying something
inappropriate. The first step is to continue enforcing the ratings
system on children. Retailers
cannot sell games to audiences younger than that for which they were
intended. They need to ask for some sort of ID to verify
age, whether it’s a learners permit for younger teenagers, a library
card or some other type of identification.
If the child cannot provide an ID, then the retailer should
not sell them an ‘M’ (mature 17+) or ‘T’ (teen 13+) rated game. With T rated games they could be a little more
lenient, as it’s not overly difficult to tell a young child from a
teenager. With M rated games,
however, if the child cannot provide so much as a learners permit
it should be obvious that they are not old enough to purchase the
game, and it should not be sold to them. The next step is to not allow parents to just walk
in and purchase the game. Each
game should have a quiz with it, questioning about the content, the
gameplay, the plot, and so on. When
an adult asks to purchase a game, the first thing the salesperson
needs to do is ask who they’re buying the game for.
If they answer that they’re buying it for themselves and they’re
saying it truthfully, then the questioning process should go fairly
smoothly and quickly as they will likely already know quite a bit
about the game. In such a case,
the salesperson wouldn’t need to ask every question. If the person buying the game answers that they’re
buying it for themselves and they’re lying or they answer that they’re
buying the game for their child, then the questioning process will
be slower and more drawn out, and the customer will likely get agitated. After the customer either gives up on a question
or makes up an answer, the salesperson would inform them of the correct
answer with enough depth to get the point across. If the customer said that they’re buying the
game for their child, then the salesperson, after the end of the questioning,
must ask the customer if they think that the game is appropriate for
their children. If they still
want to buy the game, the salesperson cannot refuse to sell it to
them, as it is still their decision as to whether or not their child
should have the game. For those not buying the game for themselves the questioning
will likely be frustrating and boring, which is the reason this will
work. The parents will be better
informed after the questions, and might even reconsider their purchase. If they continue to buy games, they will be
forced to either become better informed about the games they’re buying
their children or go through the monotonous process of guessing their
way through the questions. If
they do become better informed, many parents would stop purchasing
violent games for their children; and those who don’t would likely
get tired of running through the routine every time and stop buying
the games, or at least not purchase so many. Some
might suggest that there will be a problem with getting retailers
to implement this kind of system because it will be time consuming
for their employees. With chains that specialize in game software,
like Electronics Boutique and Software Etc., this problem would be
minimal, as most of their stores have a good number of employees who
spend a good deal of time assisting customers and who usually know
at least a little about games. At
non-specialized chains, like Wal-Mart or K-mart, the problem would
be tougher as their employees are not specialized in one area or another.
These stores would need to train some employees to specialize
in their electronics department in order to implement this process. There shouldn’t be too much more pressure on
the new salespeople, since the job of a salesperson is mostly dealing
with people. This would just
give them a more specific way to deal with their customers.
Most retail chains would be willing to comply with any reasonable
system since the video game industry would try to persuade retail
chains to use such a system, perhaps going as far as threatening to
pull games from the shelves of certain chains, as “[…] the industry
is making the same efforts to protect children it has over the past
few years […]” (Wright). Cost
shouldn’t be too much of a problem.
Most stores wouldn’t need to hire many new employees, if any. If there was a cost, the game industry would
likely should the cost as it has with the ESRB (Electronic Software
Ratings Board.) If the industry
isn’t willing to shoulder the cost itself, then the only real impact
would be a couple extra dollars on the price tag of games.
Considering that games have gotten cheaper (video games, now
on CD’s, cost approximately $50 compared to the $60 they used to cost
when in cart format), an extra couple of dollars is no big deal, and
most gamers would be willing to shell out a little extra if it meant
keeping their pastime. Despite
a few problems, my solution is very practical and would work. There are other solutions, though most of them
would have larger drawbacks or wouldn’t work. The government could make it illegal to sell
M rated games to minors, but that would put games in the same category
as pornography, tobacco, and alcohol, which many gamers would not
stand for. Not only would this solution offend gamers,
but it would make M rated games a ‘forbidden fruit’ which minors would
want even more. Another
solution would be for the government to set limits on the amount of
violence allowed in games, but what that amounts to is censorship,
which is against our rights. Also,
older gamers would not stand for losing the violent aspects of many
games. An
even less reasonable solution would be a government ban on gaming. This idea, of course, is ridiculous and would
have millions of gamers up in arms. Children
playing violent games is an obvious problem that must be dealt with,
just as much for the sake of older gamers as for the sake of the impressionable
psyche of the children themselves.
There are many solutions, but nothing too extreme is necessary,
just something that would make obtaining the violent games a pain
to those who shouldn’t have them. Violence in any form of media will never disappear;
we just need to have better, voluntary, control of it. Works Cited “The Lion and Lamb Project”. 2000. <http://www.lionlamb.org/violence_vid_games_facts.htm> Wright, Brad. “Sounding
the alarm on video game ratings.” CNN.com <http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/fun.games/12/19/games.ratings/> |
