Do you let your teenager play 18 rated games?

[PosiePootlePerkins]

My 13 year old is convinced he is the only teenager in the whole world who isn't allowed 18 rated games on his PS4. I am new to all of this and would gladly return to the world of minecraft and mario so I don't have to make these parenting decisions! He is looking at some of the Assasins Creed games. What do you lot think? Am I an overprotective parent if I say no?
Thanks

I just watched that for a bit scottishdiem it really didn't seem too bad... Thanks for the link I never knew
that existed! Will show DH in the morning.
Lou898 I also have a 5 year gap between my boys, a 13 year old and an 8 year old. I feel like the eldest has to test the waters with everything, this is certainly one of the harder decisions though!
I don't want him to feel left behind his peers either, that may not seem like a good reason but it does matter at his age, having that common ground... I am trying hard to see it from his point of view.

You will need to find another player playing it each time you go to the site. Just do a search in the box at the top and it will bring up some of the videos streaming. Exercise a little caution. Sometime people have an insert video of themselves playing. Usually ok. Once or twice a little inappropriate.

To be totally honest - the issue for me isnt these games or their content. Books and films have a lot more opportunity to be disturbing than video games. I would suggest that at 13 he needs to be much more monitored regarding online play (these games can log into a shared universe with other people, often a lot of adults). That can be much harder to deal with.

OK, thanks I will exercise caution on the twitch site just in case anything dodgy appears ha ha! He doesn't want to join up online with anyone he just wants to play by himself. Hasn't subscribed to whatever it is that lets you play online. Gets bored very easily and needs a variety of activities to keep him busy, playing on his PS4 is just one activity. With Summer holidays looming I need to get this sorted. Thanks again scottishdiem you've been really helpful.

I'm not keen - they play these games over and over. I don't think it's a healthy past time to begin with but being repeatedly exposed to violence for hours on end? It doesn't fill me with hope for a 13 year olds mental health.

Yes we did. CoD and assassins creed.

Has had no ill effect on them, and at late teens they rarely play games any more.

Blanketdog it wouldn't be for hours on end, as I said upthread it would be one of a range of activities he does.
Throughthickandthin thank you for your reply it is good to know others have allowed it and teens have come out the other side!
Have had a chat with DH about it and we think we are going to allow AC Black Flag, with ground rules in place and as a testing of the waters. Will talk it all through with DS when he surfaces later! Screen time will be the first thing to go if his behaviour isn't good enough. There will be time limits. No linking up online (he isn't able to do this anyway and not interested) We'll see how it goes. Appreciate all the thoughts on this, its new ground for us as parents.

PosiePootlePerkins I recently got "told off" by my sil for trying to restrict my dcs access to gaming, apparently they'd be left behind by their peers at school, because they are all gaming all the time....and she had tried to restrict gaming assess but it didn't work and just caused a lot of aggravation between her and her dcs - she told me that I was going to cause the same problems and I should just let my dcs have unfettered access to all things electronic! Who wins that battle is up to you....I'm just not comfortable with my dcs gaming all evening - as you said, it's fine in moderation as long as you can enforce the moderation.

Blanketdog completely agree it is up to you as a parent and certainly no-one else's business how you choose to make those decisions. No way would I allow unrestricted access, it is one activity and I am really conscious of making sure my boys have regular exercise, fresh air, screen free time etc. We do loads of stuff as a family not related to gaming, camping, trips to the beach, walks, they do Choi Kwang do twice a week (self defence) swimming cooking etc etc. 13yr old keen to help me in the garden with various projects this summer. So yes on balance I am happy with the way we do things, it was just the age limits I was struggling with.

Agree with pp that each game needs looking at individually. Some like call of duty are fine, others like GTA are still banned in my house even though DS is 18.

Assassin's creed became acceptable to me around 15.

Get him the FIFA games and a good racing car game so he has something reasonably cool to play with friends when they come round.

Nope and both teens have been told that, once they are 18yo, they can do whatever they want but they will STILL not be allowed to play those games in my house.

YY angel FIFA and a good racing game is working very well for my two.

Our DS who is 15 asked DH for GTA today. A resounding "No".. mainly because we've had issues with poor behavior from him, but had that not been the case, we still would not have allowed for a while. I do feel its down to parents to exercise their judgement-as to what they feel is appropriate for their own child and we don;t feel he is ready for it yet-some of his mates have it , so their parents are obviously ok with it.

Depends what they are but it's no to GTA and for the moment, CoD.

I have a 14 year old and I'm a firm NO to 18 games. He's quite happy with football and racing games anyway which are a 12 and under luckily.
It will be a firm no even if he wanted to start playing them though. They're 18 for a reason.

No, have had 3dc and none of them are/were allowed.
We are the same with film ratings too.
Tell him if he has it all now there's nothing to look forward to when he's older.

Also no.

My DC (13), occasionally sees 15s by our agreed exception, but definitely not 18s.

Because they are not 18

For me the thing is, if you blur the lines too much by saying they don't matter, how can you expect them to maintain other age related lines

I've played all the AC games and it would be a no from me at 13. Yes they are brilliant games and lots of history and immersive surroundings etc but there is also a lot of killing (can kill civilians, by mistake) you can hire courtesans for missions etc, I'd probably loosen up around 14/15 for ac

As for Cod probably 15 online with other players maybe around 14 for playing the main story line or zombies but all consoles are in the living room and will continue to be so they can be monitored anyway

Online with other players would be providing they were sensible and not shouting and swearing either