18 rated games?

[momsymom]

AIBU to allow my 5 year old son to play games such as grand theft auto. my husband had many arguments with me about this.... but it's just a game. I say to him as long as you understand it's only a game it's ok. My husband hates me for this. AIBU? Would you allow yuor child to do this.

My DC love playing MarioKart on the Wii U they have at their dad's, they love the driving around but wish there was more to do. So I bought them a second hand ps2 and a simpsons driving game, where they have to do tasks. They love it. And they still don't know what a blow job is.

Unless you have spent more time anaylsing all areas of the game content then the censorship body that did so before selecting the rating for the game YABVU. And pretty ignorant and stupid IMO.

This old chestnut again!

I work in CAMHS and am sick to the back teeth of assessing primary aged kids who are referred by school or their GP or whoever because they're "aggressive, obsessed with death/guns/violence, acting out violent fantasies on pets/siblings" etc. and it turns out that they've been playing Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto etc since they were 4 or 5. More often than not the parents just can't (or refuse to) see the connection and either look at me blankly or get defensive and insist that "it's only a game". It's not real so it must be OK. Violent pornography isn't real either but they wouldn't let a four year old watch it. It's ridiculous to let a child play a violent/sexualised game and expect them to view the content with an adults understanding of reality, context and social boundaries/norms. Also by telling them "it's just a game" you're normalising the violence, sending the message that it's not a big deal if you don't mean it and you're just playing. That's a very dangerous message to send a child who is too young to fully understand all the consequences of their actions and to completely separate fantasy from reality.

Sorry for the rant but this kind of thing really boils my piss

Yes some people are that stupid as Yorks post shows. My dss mum let's him play cod since he was 5 I sincerely hope we won't be facing the problems mentioned because of it. Although his behaviour does leave a lot to be desired already.

Can we all just agree to stop with this reverse thing and just say what we mean?
It just means that half the people responding have only read the op and nothing makes any sense!!

yorksha DS2's school had to put a reminder in their newsletter that these games are not age appropriate, along with some guidance issued by the LA. Kids have been acting this stuff out in the playground.

Mind you, the consequences could be embarrassing if DS2 ever got hold of a bird and a catapult, at the same time.