Microsoft: We must educate parents Options

[Xbox-Scene]

Microsoft: We must educate parents Posted by XanTium | July 11 11:36 EST | News Category: Xbox360

From mcvuk.com: [QUOTE] Regional director of Xbox in the UK Neil Thompson has told MCV that parents are still erroneously treating consoles and adult games as 'toys' - and called on the industry to educate families. ELSPA member Thompson said that the publishers' body would "corral the industry" into teaching parents the difference between family and adult content. When asked if parents still needed educatation to understand that consoles weren't 'kids toys', he said: "The simple answer is yes. As a platform holder we take our responsibility of enabling parents to make the right decisions for their children very seriously. This is why we build technologies into the platform that allow parents to switch content on or off as well as allowing them to control the amount of time the products can be used." [/QUOTE] Full Story: mcvuk.com

[HotKnife420]

Grown-ups just can't see that it's the taste of cinnamon and sugar that's packed into every 360 that makes it so delicious.

[tomgreen99200]

lol !

[simpull7]

...When asked if parents still needed educatation to understand that consoles weren't 'kids toys'...

[BRD]

I remember the good old days when the ESRB didn't exist.

Here's where I see the problem:

Kid is 15 years old. He has a job and pays for his own shit. Therefore, he can buy and play whatever the fuck game he wants.

[beasty54]

I remember the good old days when the ESRB didn't exist.

Here's where I see the problem:

Kid is 15 years old. He has a job and pays for his own shit. Therefore, he can buy and play whatever the fuck game he wants.

Why is that a problem? a 15 year old kid that has a job but still lives with his parents does not buy and play whatever he wants, well not at home anyway. Parents can't watch every move a kid makes and i understand that, especially a 15 year old but they can control what goes on under their own roof.

[tbb033]

Parents need to educate themselves. It's not anyone else's responsibility what their kids do/don't play.

[Miked2003]

I remember the good old days when the ESRB didn't exist.

Here's where I see the problem:

Kid is 15 years old. He has a job and pays for his own shit. Therefore, he can buy and play whatever the fuck game he wants.

i totally agree with ya man

[Elmer06]

I think the parents need to educate themselves.

[iwanttheagrocrag]

Lol, I was playing Gta yesterday and we were in a party of 4 or 5 and we were trying to start a game but all the other people were on our team so it was gonna be a 8 on like 2. So i went to party an switched to game chat and started telling people that the game need even teams, I may have swore and called them inbred. And like 2 or 3 little kids were like "those are some pretty bad words" I'm like what your playing an ADULT game were you kill people how much worse can swearing be. I was so mad because there is always a little kid in any game you play on Gta, and if Im playing a game solely based on killing, its gonna be an ADULT game and i should be able to cuss like a sailor all i want.

It just shows like this little girl that got abducted a few weeks back, the parentw didn't give a s*** about were this girl was they just let here loose, this is basically what these parents do that let kids play Gta. Same thing a Halo 3 if your in Big team there is always a little kid playing and i always ask (after everyone take there dig at him or his mom) How old are you and were is you parents aren't you supposed to be doing something else than playing a very competitive killing game.

Something that actually does something for there brain not just gets them out of your face.

[HotKnife420]

Lol, I was playing Gta yesterday and we were in a party of 4 or 5 and we were trying to start a game but all the other people were on our team so it was gonna be a 8 on like 2. So i went to party an switched to game chat and started telling people that the game need even teams, I may have swore and called them inbred. And like 2 or 3 little kids were like "those are some pretty bad words" I'm like what your playing an ADULT game were you kill people how much worse can swearing be. I was so mad because there is always a little kid in any game you play on Gta, and if Im playing a game solely based on killing, its gonna be an ADULT game and i should be able to cuss like a sailor all i want.

It just shows like this little girl that got abducted a few weeks back, the parentw didn't give a s*** about were this girl was they just let here loose, this is basically what these parents do that let kids play Gta. Same thing a Halo 3 if your in Big team there is always a little kid playing and i always ask (after everyone take there dig at him or his mom) How old are you and were is you parents aren't you supposed to be doing something else than playing a very competitive killing game.

Something that actually does something for there brain not just gets them out of your face.

Fair enough perspective, but there's a few things I'd like to point out:

1) GTA isn't solely based on killing. In fact, I steal way more cars than I do kill people in it.

2) Just because a game has cussing in it, doesn't mean you should excessively cuss. Personally, if you annoy me, I just mute you, but that's me.

And just how little were these kids we're talkin' about? Moreso than that, perhaps the parents have already evaluated the game, and have a different approach. For example, when I was a kid, we all cussed anyway, but we had respect for the right adults that we shouldn't cuss around, so I really don't care if my son cusses, just so long that he doesn't go sounding like a potty mouth to pepole (cuss appropriately, if there is such a thing).

Game-wise, I'm not too concerned about violence. GTA's violence still has an 'animated' feel to it in general. It's the dialogue in the game that I won't let my child play it, because the dialogue is more applicable to generic situations, and is effectively a "language teacher", so to speak. Violence, however, is harder for a child to mimic, especially when it's done through a controller. I'm not saying that violence doesn't need moderation or anything, I'm just saying it's not the only bad (after all, I grew up watching the most violent of cartoons and movies, yet I'm a very nonviolent person).