to feel scared for our girls when kicking prostitutes in a video game

[Duckierub]

gets you more points.

Did anyone see the program about women's roles in video games? I was utterly horrified when I saw the imagery of how women are portrayed as sexual objects and kicking female prostitutes to get your money back earned you points. I was also shocked that the teen girls interviewed said it was normal for them to be molested by boys.

AIBU to think that we should be campaigning against some of this stuff?

I have played GTAs 1 through 4. I want to make clear:

You DO NOT get points for killing prostitutes
You DO NOT get extra points for attacking women
You DO NOT get points full stop
You ARE free to do whatever you like with bystanders, men, women, black, white, whatever. It's equal opportunity mayhem.
You ARE punished for murdering at random, there is a very effective and ruthless police force in game that will attempt to hunt you down.

You are completely free to be offended by GTA, it's very violent and very adult. But at least attack it for what it is rather than for some bollocks someone posted on Mumsnet, eh?

Totally agree with you op. It's terrifying. I will come back and rtft later.

Yes, surely reporting the boy's behaviour to the HT would make more sense than random vigilante action from other pupils.

And no Unreal, Mark Twain would not be supporting censorship.

Just googled it, GTA is from 1997.
Damn I feel old, I played it when it came out (as a 10 year old)!

It's equal opportunity mayhem

It comes down to parents. Either they buy violent games for their children, or they have braincells and don't. DD is 5 and plays Minecraft, Lego Marvel and Lego Harry Potter. She has watched me play Skyrim (a 15). When I play Skyrim she does not watch me kill bandits and mages (humans). She watches me explore the glorious countryside in game and cast spells. She has also watched me play WoW, which is an online game and rendered much more cartoon-like.
My more brutal games are played after she has gone to bed, same for DH.

We are a gaming household and my children will be growing up with games as much as they want to. However DH and I are responsible parents and therefore we will not be allowing DD or DS (bit young for games yet!) to play games they are too young for.

Unfortunately some parents just don't give a shit. MIL and her boyfriend repeatedly bought BIL (he's 16 now) GTA, Saints Row, Hitman type games when he was growing up, despite DH and I explaining what those games entailed and pointing out the age limit.

I think that there needs to be more clear age ratings when downloading games from the Internet or when watching Internet ads on YouTube etc.
There are ratings on the AppStore but it's not as prominent as when you buy a physical game. (I'm not sure it's PEGI ratings either as I can only recall seeing a 18+ Or 16+ sort of rating for a messaging app?

"We have to remember that children have always done 'gaming' - even in Mark Twain's time. It was called 'soldiers' or 'cowboys and indians' and girls played 'doctors and nurses' or 'weddings'."

Nice bit of gender stereotyping there, Unreal. Do you really think that girls have never played "violent" games like cowboys and Indians or that boys have never played more "nurturing" games like doctors and nurses?

You can block sites etc but people are told "just Google it" however many people are not literate enough and need a guide. So they should be given more guidance.

Second of all GTA is a shit game. Yes let's glamorise theft and violence it is all part of the creep towards normalising anti social behaviour.

People hide behind the argument of censorship. But there are boundaries of decency ffs. Children should be protected from such things and they aren't which means something is wrong.

Gotnotime.

Firstly you can pick and choose what your children can access on the Internet. You can block single sites or even a group of sites. So no need to block the Internet. Have you ever tried actually doing this? You need to be a programmer to do this successfully and what about when your children are at someone else's house, or watching it second hand on utube? Have you actually got children even and if so what age are they?

As for children badgering and sulking that's parenthood I'm afraid. and many parents are not strong enough to be constantly fighting with their addicted children

Yes adults and children like to play video games but to say either are obsessed is a bit of a strong statement to make. indeed. It's not what I said.

And I'm not even going to start on the supposed similarities between selling heroin and a game. both of them have one vital thing in common - a huge amount of MONEY to be made, and both are damaging to children's health when they become addicted. The neurological reward processes induced by children using games are similar to those involved in other addictive behaviours.

I think that many GTA fans were sucked in because of the free roam format rather than because of the violence.

The responsibility of protecting my child is MY responsibility and nobody else's.

It is an utterly crazy argument that something should be banned because its not appropriate for children.

"People hide behind the argument of censorship. But there are boundaries of decency ffs. Children should be protected from such things and they aren't which means something is wrong."

Yes, children should be protected - by their parents! As I and plenty of other have said, the world is full of things that are unsuitable for children but we don't ban them. Instead we expect their parents to educate themselves and make informed choices to protect their children.

And no, you do not need to be a programmer to use internet filters. Seriously?

Cantabile What those children are doing is harassing and bullying, whatever excuse they think they might have.
Do you also advocate beating up drug dealers in alleys?
Sexual harassment should neither be dealt with politely nor by groups of vigilante children, it is a matter for the authorities - school administration if not the police.

Oh yes, actually, there are PEGI ratings on the app store/google play store but these are not shown AT ALL on the version of the store you can view from your phone. I let DS play Plants vs Zombies for ages before realising (after seeing on something totally unrelated online) that it is PEGI rated 12. Because he had already played it I didn't stop him - and DH had the game first anyway so we had already decided it was fine, but if I'd realised it was a 12 in the first place, I probably wouldn't have let him play it (at least until I'd played it in more depth myself).

I don't know if there are ratings for other apps but I know you can disable apps set to "adult" (like I guess things like "foreplay dice" and "101 sex positions") in the settings of itunes, at least - not sure for android.

Having done some safeguarding training recently, exposing children to unsuitable (over age) material is a safeguarding issue that 'would' be follows up (obviously not all guns blazing... It's real life after all... ;-) ).

But folks.... The worst thing children get exposed to. Is apparently online porn (oh and sharing things via web cams etc). And according to research (saw a documentary and there are stats but frankly I am not going to google them, I will just have to wade through course notes), this IS far more harmful to their well being and view of women etc, than any game. There was an article in a newspaper (guardian I think), that said children admitted to not knowing where they stood. dH himself went through a porn phase, and said he stopped 'because' he realised it was altering his expectations I realistically. There is little evidence to suggest the same is true of violent games, no matter how abhorrent they are.

The only issue for very young children is that their sense of reality etc can be blurred (so might disclose something that actually happened in a game for example), the older they get the less this is true, but there is a small danger of normalising unwanted behaviour when exposed too young (which is why there is an age restriction. Doh).

But like I say... Children are exposed to far far worse, and again, parents are not aware. Most shocking was learning that older junior age children have been know to sext etc.... In my opinion this is a more worrying issue than a made up game, because folks, it 'is' real life.

That said, no amount of begging will get me to buy them as I hate 'scary' games!

Heroin is physically addictive and can kill you.

I would like citation of studies that show that playing computer games is neurologically more similar to taking heroin than reading, playing chess, arguing on the internet, and playing board games. I play games, read, argue on the internet and play board games because they're fun.

GTA totally shocked me too When I was around teen and twenties it would have been SOOOO uncool and old fasioned to have attitudes like this to women. What worries me is that this is a controlled game and in theory evaluated and sold to over 18 but there are so many games free to download on the net totally unregulated. Also if these were against Gays and Black or Asians to the same extent,woulnt that cause an out cry? To those who say its just fun and fiction, then why doesn't it have a part of the game when there are male prostitutes? If they want sick entertainment how come it is not more balanced with men being scr-wed in their @rse? Then abused and beaten up? Funny though I think they don't want that but like the game being so biased against women. Really sick and worrying.I get that this part is not main part of tho game but that is more worrying, its just a dull accepted detail.Such a horrible part is not even headline grabbing, but just incedental and not significant!

I've just checked on my phone and the only thing is a "Content rating" which is in tiny grey text at the end of stuff like how many MB the file is and what update version it is which is the kind of thing I tend to skip when reading a product description unless I'm looking specifically for dimensions or company name or date of issue etc, and it doesn't appear at all unless you click "more info".

Plus it's not clear what the "content rating" means. A lego game is rated "low maturity" and iKarmasutra lite is rated "high maturity" but it doesn't tell me anything else (obviously with these two the distinction is pretty clear!). Something called "Castle storm" is "medium maturity".

SaskiaRembrandtWasFramed

We have societal protections too. We don't just rely on parents.

MrsWinnibago, I entirely agree. However, dd would have lost all trust in us if we had gone to the HT or HoY; she had forbidden us to do so (yes, I know that technically she's a child and it's not her decision, but I need dh behind me too, and he wasn't. She insisted that she and her friends could handle it...... looks like they are now). I posted about it really to illustrate that not all - in fact possibly only a minority - of children/teens see women and girls as objects for abuse. Definitely, the majority of dd's year are with her and giving the boy a bit of a hard time as a result of his behaviour.

IME, most children are able to differentiate between fiction and fact. Far more harm is done by people like Scudamore.

And something else called "Globlins" is rated at "Everyone"

I remember now, it was the DS game of PvZ that is rated 12. Just seeing that I wouldn't have bought it. But on the phone I didn't think because there was no clear rating.

A quick google of Castlestorm brings up everything you need to know, including that its rated T for Blood and Violence and is a 12. its not difficult; Google and YouTube are you friends here

Cant, if it were me (and I appreciate I'm not a parent of a pre teen) I would still want to speak to the HOY or HT in order to make them aware that an incident of sexual assault had occured and whether they would be able to talk about it in assembly/tutor groups/PSHE classes (or whatever they call them now) - it's good that it's been dealt with, but would also be better for all students to get the message that this is not condoned full stop.