to think that 8 years is too young to be playing Modern Warfare3 games?

[funnyperson]

An 8 year old proudly told me he loved playing Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3. His mum said he had all the others and had been give 4 other war computer games by doting relatives for Christmas. I looked it up - the games are rated 18 and might cause upset and distress.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-16745015
aibu to think that wargames have got out of hand for children?

Grownup - "my stepson showed me a particular bit (excitedly) where he slit the throat of a man in a boat and it was quite graphic. You could see the wound"

You call that graphic???

Some posters talk about how COD & Co gave their child nightmares. Well, sensitive parents raise sensitive children. Not all people/children are that sensitive and not all children respond to PC games the way a 'sensitive' child would do.

And no, its not because we have become de-sensitised by violent games and/or videos :)

MrsP: "I'd like to know why these children are playing these games. Do people think they are educational? Or useful? Or is it just that people don't want to say no, or that they want their children to fit in or what, what, what"

My mates love golf. I don't see the attraction. You drive the ball as far as you can. You then go look for it so that you can knock it into a tin cup.

There doesn't have to be a 'useful' purpose behind a game.

Won't have these games in our house, but don't kick up a fuss if DCs play them elsewhere (they are older than 8). They know my views, though.

Perhaps these people might let their 8 year old watch the first half hour of Saving Private Ryan if he's into warfare?

Like hatesponge, I promised myself I wasn't going to become embroiled in this, if only because I don't have the next 3 days free to argue on MN.

However, for every piece of research you can find saying that these games are damaging, you can find another piece disputing it. Some research has indicated that children who are prone to aggression benefit from these games because it allows them to get it all out in a controlled environment rather than irl. I don't know how true that is, but it does illustrate that the research offers varying pov.

People are very dismissive of anecdotal evidence, but imo it has as much validity as the educated guesswork of the researchers. I know lots of children who play these games (admittedly a bit older than 8 ) and none of them are violent/antisocial/on the verge of torturing small animals, prior to commencing an adult life as a gun wielding maniac.

Children are individuals, which is why their parents are best placed to judge what is appropriate. Guidelines exist so parents have an idea of what they are purchasing and also in recognition of the fact that not all children develop at the same rate and some will not be 'ready' for these types of games.

I vehemently disagree with this notion that if you allow your child to do one thing that you automatically allow them to do everything. I am an educated, intelligent woman and a conscientious parent. I often take a different view to the people who decide classification for film/games. There are films which have quite a low classification that I would not be happy with my dc watching (latest Twilight film for example, which I think was 12A), so i consider myself better placed to decide than some anonymous board of people who don't know my family.

Scholes34

I recorded Saving Private Ryan minus the D-Day landing scenes for DS. I'm not totally lacking in parental responsibility :)

There are simply so many more pleasant things you, and certainly an 8 year old child, could be doing.

We do lots of pleasant things that aren't COD related. DS is a music scholar at his Indie so his week is filled with quartet and orchestra practice. He also plays badminton for his House. Weekends we do table tennis and swimming. Weekends is the only time he is allowed to play on the PC and only after all his homework is done.

I love it when people generalise/stereotype others :) Not all COD dads live on a council estate, have tatoos and have a rotweiler called Wellard. Some of us are relatively 'normal' just because we don't have a kumbaya approach to parenting.

I meant to say that some of us are relatively 'normal' even though we don't have a kumbaya approach to parenting.

pushydad you sound like my own Father.

All my brothers are fine also :)

Did a poster just tell me I sound like her dad. That was sooo cold. Be careful or I might start talking about The War :)

no pushy my Dad is super cool ...you are fine.

Talk about the war if it helps though

Well, my dad think that this whole war-games-is-bad-for-children is a load of merde from middle class intellectuals who need something to talk about when they Do Lunch with their girfriends.

He thinks that its like saying that putting DS into a singing/dancing club will make him gay :)

Before I/we get dumped on for being homophobic, its just an analogy. A child doesn't become gay because of what he is exposed to so why do people argue that children become problem children because they play violent PC games is the point he is making.

heard it all now, so I have Kumbaya approach to parenting as I won't let my 9 and 6 yr old play COD. better get back to the compost patch and lentil weaving then...Somebody is singing Lord, Kumbaya, oh Lord Kumbaya - altogether now!

I don't think it will turn my 11 year old into a gun toting maniac, I just don't think he should be playing a game in which he has to slit someone's throat and listen to people swearing. Most of these games are an 18 rating - I wouldn't let him watch 18 rated films so I won't let him play 18 rated films.

How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?
....
....
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind

All together now

A couple of posters were going on about how they don't allow 'war' toys in the house. Come on. You have to admit that its a bit kumbaya-ish

So you realy wouldn't let them have an action man if they wanted one?

Those who don't allow war toys, that is

I don't think Action Man goes around slitting people's throats for the fun of it, and he's probably had plenty of his own campfires.

I don't really see how not glamourising violence is hippyish.

The violence in these games is glamourised and made to look hip and cool, just look at the trailers. Teabagging is very popular in my sons year (age 9). I asked him what on earth he was doing and it seems it's where you stand over your dead opponent and mock them by dipping the knees and presumably teabagging them with their cock to add insult. Hope i may have got the teabagging thing wrong but it was the only explanation I could come up with, please someone tell me different. Now his 6 yr old brother is doing it as well.

hear hear scholes...exactly what I was going to say.

war games might not necessarily be the devil's work but I can think of plenty of things I'd rather my 2 DSs got up to in their spare time. Housework, for example.

How is it 'glamourising violence'? DD likes Cooking Mama on the wii. Does that glamourise cooking? Is it reinforcing sexist stereotypes?

Does playing 'Angry Birds' make DC want to chuck birds against the side of the house? Did playing soldiers make our grandparent's generation want to invade other people's countries? Errrmm. Ok, maybe the last bit wasn't a good example

People were going around doing horrible things to other people long before PC games were invented. If a kumbaya movement existed back then, I wonder what they would blame the violence on?

"I told you, no swords in the house. No. I am not going to buy you a set of toy armour for Christmas' :)

sozzledchops - At the risk of sounding snobbish, it sounds more like the area in which you live in rather than the PC games. To my COD playing DC, teabaggining is an arts and craft thing. I've no idea why they call it that since the art is to fold several pieces of patterned paper to make a larger picture.