Xbox

[seahorse38]

Can't fault my hubby as he helps loads with kids and house stuff etc but came into the lounge today to see my 4 and 5 yr old playing call of duty (muted) with him....they didn't have a clue what they were doing and were just laughing at getting the bad guys....opinions please, yes or no?

It's bad enough that murderers are called heroes but do we need to turn this into a game for fun too?

What HomersGirl said.

Seriously?

Not the one about murderers, the previous post.

Oddly enough, I wouldn't allow a child that age to even see a COD game but I would play GTA. Reason being, COD games are more linear whereas GTA is open world. I've sat with a toddler and three year old and drive a tractor slowly around the countyside at the top of Los santos, with sound muted. You can follow the traffic laws, see nice scenery. I've driven around the island on a jet ski, letting them chose the direction. No violence whatsoever, no bad language as I mute it and put a music on. However I wouldn't let a child play, even if I was next to them, I can look at the map and avoid anything like going too close to the airbase and getting a police level, or a gang attack. They see it as a cartoon land to look at, with a tractor!

But shooting games no. Even minecraft I'm careful, no zombie killing. I do play on survival with the eldest, just on easy so no monsters spawn. I see it as a little life lesson, in creative everything you want is at your fingertips, in survival if you want a wooden house with a library, swimming pool and carpeted bedroom you have to make the tools, mine for iron, shear the sheep and craft the buckets!

HomerGirl in a relationship there is letting someone do or don't do something.

I am a 28 year old women and I love violent games, GTA5, COD, halo and god of war.

If my husband didn't let me play.... Then I'm in the wrong relationship.

Flyntcoal you have more restraint than me :)

I wouldn't even let a child see the nice bits of GTA.. they have to have it drummed into them what they can and can't see or play. Kids are not always under the watchful eye of somebody responsible and if a kid gives the green light in somebody elses house that their mother or father lets them watch them on GTA they might not be as responsible.

Some games need a blanket ban and that is one of them. COD is one of them and anything else with an age rating like that. What's the point of putting age ratings on them in that case.. they may as well be PG FFS!

Would it kill him to wait until they are in bed? DH loves COD but plays after DD is in bed, asleep.

Okay, voice of reason time. Watching or playing Call of Duty will not turn young children into psychopaths. Neither does it, along with every other violent video game, need to be banned. I am an avid gamer and almost exclusively play these types of games. I am not a violent person. In fact, I find that they focus my mind and relieve stress.

HOWEVER there are numerous moments in these games that could upset younger viewers. My son is 3.5 and I would never dream of playing these sort of things when he is in the room. However, many children will be unfazed by it because it will go over their heads.

These violent things (TV, games, movie) are potentially more harmful to those of a sensitive disposition once they comprehend what is on the screen (i.e. around 7 to 12 years old, give or take).

So, what he did was unwise but better that than watching Silence of the Lambs, True Detective or Saw with them in the room. Bambi in infinitely more distressing than Call of Duty and that is a kids film.

Well I don't see the difference between watching violence and actively participating in violence.

Fifa has a high age rating due to the fact you can play with other players over the internet and speak at the same time, which is fine until you get some 18 year olds getting a kick out of f-ing and blinding.

Disney infinity has two modes, sandbox where you can build stuff (which i can get on board with) and the world modes where it is much like a traditional platform game.

Dd aged 5 loves infinity - especially riding the bike around on monsters university. I personally think its a bit rubbish (but I'm not 5) I don't see it as educational apart from developing fine motor control and a bit of coordination.

But seriously try minecraft - it looks like something from the 80s but its basically Lego on a screen and we all join in on that.

Sorry me and my partner play call of duty all the time. there is no gore. maybe a tiny bit of blood yes. It's not even that bad. I played 18 certificate games when I was 6. they haven't screwed me up - let your kids play the games!. Games are really good for improving reaction time and making decisions among other things. games for older people are more fun to play. I mean, no one cared when my dad watched the exorcist at 8 because everyone else watched it, it was the norm, so was playing games until the ratings came out. I don't see why people care as long as there's no sex in the game.

Sorry let me add - I wouldn't play GTA with children around. there'd be too much explaining, it's a lot gorier than COD is. Minecraft is a really good game for kids. I played Resident Evil at six but also played buzz lightyear of star command. I've always loved games and will game with my children, but what I deem appropriate isn't what others do xD I would still never play anything with sex/drugs. Even the avatar games on xbox are quite violent. Childrens games are violent because kids like violence, you just have to teach them it's not real and to not do it in real life!

I mean, no one cared when my dad watched the exorcist at 8 because everyone else watched it, it was the norm,

Maybe in his world it was 'the norm', but it sure as hell wasn't in mine.

And I've still never seen it.

There are plenty of age appropriate games. There is no need for children of 6 to see or play Cert18.

I didn't mean the games need to be banned.. i'm talking about them being banned from young eyes by yanno supposedly responsible parents.

playing games meant for adults in the same room as young kids is just the same as watching a film they shouldn't see imo and it's bloody scary how many people think that just because their brains can process it as just a video game think that their kids process it the same way.. it's frightening.

It's the norm in mine, too. I didn't watch things such as cannibal Holocaust because my dad doesn't even want me to watch it now I'm an adult. It's vulgar. But I watched a lot of zombie films, monster films, as well as survival horror games which haven't affected me, I never saw how they might affect someone. i was told it wasn't real and had no need to be scared, or to copy it.
horror films and games in my world is the norm.

cannibal holocaust is crap but a bit of an extreme example don't you think... that's how high the bar was set for you as a kid? :( no wonder you don't see the harm in it.

Horror films and games are the norm in my world, but not my young childs which is as it should be.

YABU if you think your children can play violent games and be unaffected. Can't you understand that your children are developing right now. You are normalising violence to them

There was some stuff I couldn't watch as a child, it was just the only thing that came into my head. I have since watched it and thought "why didn't they let me watch this? it's complete garbage!" The thing is, I was unaffected. But it doesn't mean there aren't kids who have been affected by it. My mum and dad taught me from starting to watch these movies/play these games that they are fake, and i knew that I shouldn't be copying them etc.
There are some children who are so hypersensitive that they can't even watch a harry Potter film without being scared, but some parents won't even let them watch them and get over that fear just because they're a 12 rating. They were a 12A in the cinema which meant anyone could watch it with an adult present. The world of fantasy is violent. Look at the little mermaid and the ice queen. Quite dark, violent, upsetting. But The Little Mermaid and Frozen are well loved now.
Things that phase kids now never phased me, or my friends, my family. There have been some threads I've read on here about 8-9 year olds finding porn, one of them wanted "the scary pictures in his head to go away" and started to 're-enact' the things he saw by himself and was scared about what he was doing because no one told him what he saw wasn't real and the feelings he was getting were normal. My mum and dad explicitly told me every film unless it states it's factual isn't real and not to be done in real life, only to be watched and known it's fake. Thats why serial killers (having watched nightmare on elm street at 12) and monsters/ demons (exorcist at the same age) don't bother me and never have done.
But games, games are totally different. You can let out anger at games, play puzzles (if you play resident evil, you'd know the old games were chock full of shooting heads off zombies as well as time-consuming puzzles), and be told a wonderful story in some instances. Silent Hill is violent, and there are very sexual undertones but the games and films made me cry! beautifully told pieces of virtual artwork, imo. A child would never understand the corporation and wold domination of resident evil, or the tragic stories of silent hill, so there's no point letting them play other than to take away the bad guys.

NRTFH

No no no no no. Would you let them watch an 18 rated horror film? It's no different.

And your husband does not 'help' with the house and children, it's his house and kids too and this iis not a good thing it's exactly how it should be. Don't praise him for not being shit

Well I don't see the difference between watching violence and actively participating in violence

Really, HomersGirl?? That's really puzzling. I must have read it wrong, surely?

So say, anyone enjoying Midsomer Murders for example, might just as well be out strangling their next door neighbour? Or shooting the local vicar?

YABU if you think your children can play violent games and be unaffected. Can't you understand that your children are developing right now. You are normalising violence to them

Agree, although no need to call the OP a twat Homersgirl that's very harsh.

I can't decide whether our world has become so desensitised people have to ask the question on whether or not it's ok for their young children to view violent images because a) overexposure to everthing is the norm, or b) the video game marketers are extremely clever

Bowlersarm watching a murder mystery where the gory details happen behind the scenes is not the same as control a game character who enacts extremely graphic violence onto others. It comes down to what the eyes see and what the ears hear - if violence is there in all it's glory of course it will have an affect on people

Ok, that just seemed like an enormous generalisation.