AIBU to think that 14 (y10) is too young for Call of Duty?

[tigerdriverII]

According to DS "everyone " plays it. Do they? AIBU to say that if you're 14 you don't get to play 18 games?

If you wouldn't let your kids watch an 18 rated film, you probably shouldn't by them an 18 rated game. Also be aware that games can change a lot when you go online to play.

I'm a little surprised it's an 18 tbh. Its not in the same league as GTA, in my view.

The ratings are there for a reason - 18 rated games are not suitable for kids. There are so many good games out there, much better than COD! Portal (as OneIsEnough suggested), Journey, Rocket League, Tearaway, LittleBigPlanet, Monument Valley, No Man's Sky... I'm sure others can offer some more suggestions.

To second moreteapenguin Little Big planet is an awesome game! Me and DP play it all the time :)

DH and I are gamers and our kids are following suit. The oldest two are 7 and 4 and so we haven't had to worry much about age ratings yet as they don't know of many 18 rated games! However while they mostly play Minecraft and Lego games, the 7 year old had played Halo. The point of those games is to fight aliens, rather than people, which makes a huge different IMO. It's much more cartoonish than, say Gears of War, which is also about soldiers shooting aliens, but with much more gore.

Equally I have allowed to her watch me play Skyrim on occasion, while on various quests that don't involve fighting other humans. She's watched me hunt animals on it and battle dragons and we've also collected plants and bugs to do alchemy.

As I've said, this is how I currently draw the line: keeping the violence non realistic (and non sadistic) is key. It's probably a moot point as neither DH nor I are at all interested in COD games when there are literally hundreds of better games out there, so DD and DS will have to play it at their friends houses

Look on common sense media for reviews of it.

Luckily, DS shows no interest in this at all but I wouldn't let him have it if he did.

I am way more worried about all those seemingly innocent games on iPad, which constantly demand money or to befriend strangers via facebook, also GAMBLING with real money. This sort of crap gets no age restrictions.

Don't surrender! I am sorry but as someone whose been a youth worker for years I have seen the result these games can have on young people's lives. Its about normalising violence and whilst you say it's okay its not impacted on them, you can't ever know that until they've got through their whole lives. Brains during the teenage years are still forming neural pathways, do you really want your child's brain to be growing used to sensing violence? I am sorry but this is why violence in school and universities is now the single biggest social problem we have to deal with educating your children because of mass popular beiad streaming of violence. You only need to look at James Bulgers killers to look for reasons why not. I think stand your ground. There is a reason why it has an eighteen certificate.

I compromised with ds who is 10 and said he was only allowed to play the zombie levels.

My DS13 plays it, only an hour here and there, but DS11 no.
I think the benefits of maintaining solid friendships, having a common ground and yes, "fitting in" with his peers through the tough teenage years outweighs the risks of him becoming violent. If Inthought it was having an adverse effect I'd review it.

As it happens my DC aren't interested and I've only just allowed my 14 year old to watch 15 certificate videos. But I think that all OP's son's friends probably do play though, and I think that I'd probably be OK with a 14 year old playing COD on condition of an absolute ban on playing online with strangers. Might let my 14 year old play Assassin's Creed if they're still keen at 15 - it looks great and doesn't have the creepy online element.

my nephew was is 10 and plays COD, along with many other age inappropriate games. apparently all his friends do as well. i think my MIL (who is his primary carer as his mothers disappeared and his dad (bil) is abusive) is doing his a great disservice by allowing this. it's not just the level of violence in the game but they all play team death match, where my oh swears at other people like a trooper, as do most, and nephew and his friends are listening to, receiving those insults and probably repeating them in the game but also at school. i think 16, if they could hold down a job and maintain grades etc i'd probably be ok with it, i know it's illegal but i had friends signing up to the army at 17.... seems a bit backward!

It's not right but I'd rather he play it in front of me where I can regulate what he's doing (and who he's talking to online while playing it) than him going to mates houses.

I think that there's an element of marketing here. Being 'not allowed' while 'everyone else has it' certainly makes it more apealing to youngsters. You hardly see hysterical threads like this about The Witcher or Fallout for example. Even though content is pretty unsavoury in places. Also nobody thought anything bad of CoD while it was only about WW2

More goes in to the ratings than just is is too scary.
Some personalities can play and watch this stuff and it will wash over them. Some personalities can get desensitised to violence and some can become more violent because of it.

Commonsensemedia is usually a good, balanced place to find out about games and films, with personal ratings given by kids and parents.

www.commonsensemedia.org/search/Call%20of%20duty

I banned COD and GTA from the house.

Went down well, I can tell you.

DS is 18 now. He survived.

I think the benefits of maintaining solid friendships, having a common ground and yes, "fitting in" with his peers through the tough teenage years outweighs the risks of him becoming violent. If Inthought it was having an adverse effect I'd review it

If all parents said no this would not be an issue.

YY Dixie DS1 is 17 and learning to drive/A Levels/football/going out means that the PS4 isn't used half as much as a few years ago.

I was brought up by very strict parents who always refused to buy the games my peer group was playing, instead buying what they considered 'age appropriate'. By the time I was old enough to have the games no one played them and I had lost interest . I now feel I missed out on a lot of childhood experiences everyone else had.

Most parents are intelligent enough to decide if something is ok for their children. We do not need a politically correct nanny state. Banning teenagers from normal cultural bonding, peer socialisation etc is probably more harmful than any content in COD. I remember a lot of children's cartoons that were a lot more violent than COD but I never confused them with real life.

I'm a gamer, who grew up on Wolfenstein, Quake, GTA 1 & 2, Doom etc, and I turned out to be a very non-violent person.
My son (8,) and his sister (5) mostly play games that don't involve realistic violence (Terraria, Minecraft, Worms, the Lego games, Skylanders etc.) But I also let them have run arounds on my Skyrim, Dragon Age, and Fallout games occasionally, and they will battle monsters, animals, and raiders on those.
We don't have COD (my husband and nephew disparage it as "swamped by 12 year olds,") but for games like Battlefront, Battlefield, etc, we'll let them have a supervised twenty minute play online without the headset.They're both happy and well-adjusted children with extremely sweet, compassionate natures.
Honestly, I think you should do whatever you think is best for your child, but from everything I've heard, COD is basically made for pubescent boys, haha.
And as for people worrying about video game violence and the effect it has on children... We're currently in the least violent point in the world's history. A family day out used to be a hanging, they burned witches, flogged people, hung drew and quartered criminals, raped women, and treated human lives like nothing of importance, and I'm pretty sure that wasn't cos they played COD, seeing as video games didn't exist.
Within the context of a good home life, and played in moderation video games are not a big deal.

Also a PP said that "Loads of kids smoke and have sex at fourteen.... mine aren't doing that either." upthread, and I just have to mention that my mum didn't think I was having sex at fourteen either

Call of Duty is vile. However, thankfully, my son also thinks so (he's 15, Yr 11). He does play other games that are 18 though, more alien invasion, new planets type of thing or zombies, or fantasy.

I still hate them though, because I too would never get past go. He's a lovely lad, who still plays Pokemon, as does his older sisters. (I love Pokemon too, new game now out!).

myfavourite that's very true but they don't. So I parent in the here and now.

INtersetingly enough, on threads like these it's always the "gamers" who strongly recommend you don't allow your underage children to play these games, whereas the people who don;t play video games always think it's ok to let young children play.
I'm a gamer and not so long ago I had to describe a long and explicit sex scene that was in a game, that a friend of mine (non gamer) as she thought it would be ok to let her 7 year old son play.
Online gaming is full of adults who will swear and some who are completely vulgar and inappropriate.
If your child is playing 18 games and is online- they will come across people like this and you won't know about it.
The games themselves- even without the online aspect are completely inappropriate.
The gory and disturbing ones are more so in a video game as it is the player making the choice to kill or maim.
Graphically they can be incredibly realistic and lifelike.

I've never played it so I couldn't say whether it's OK or not, but I do think the vast majority of 14-year-olds will have played it - I don't think your son is misleading you by claiming that.

I think age ratings are a tricky thing. There are so many reasons why a film or a game can be rated a certain way, and so many variations in context etc. There are some 18 films I'd happily let a 14-year-old watch, and others I wouldn't at all.