How the Quake fan parents his child

Website Wired ran an interesting article regarding how this generation of current and would-be parents, the same people who grew up with the Mortal Kombat, Quake and Doom franchises, would parent their children when it’s their turn to play. The discussion was light and made a lot of sense.

According to the article, it’s a given that most of the gamers who grew up shooting demons and decapitating opponents are still playing games today. There would come a time when the kids would want to sit with their folks and notice how much fun it is to spill guts. What’s a parent to do? Act all clean all of a sudden?

Not exactly. One simple way to deal with it is to treat games like movies. Most people can discern for themselves whether the content is appropriate for a child or not. If it’s too gory or too sexy, you probably won’t want your toddler in the same room as you are. It’s like porn, in a way. Everybody’s watched some once in a while but nobody takes their kids watching with them.

It’s a far cry from hypocrisy to limit what your kid gets into his system. During the formative years of a child, it’s essentially anything goes in terms of contextualization of content. What he does and does not see or play could be vital for his future. We all know that violent games per se don’t turn kids into gun-toting thugs. Studies have shown that many times. The only ones pushed to shooting by games are those who were either mentally disturbed or had violent tendencies in the first place. That’s the bottomline.

Will we let our kids play future versions of the GTA and Gears of war games? Sure. We know there’s little if any chance at all that it would result in actual violence, but let it all come in due time. That time would be right around the day when they know what right from wrong is and what not to do at home.

To read Wired’s full essay, follow the read URL.

Website Wired ran an interesting article regarding how this generation of current and would-be parents, the same people who grew up with the Mortal Kombat, Quake and Doom franchises, would parent their children when it’s their turn to play. The discussion was light and made a lot of sense.

According to the article, it’s a given that most of the gamers who grew up shooting demons and decapitating opponents are still playing games today. There would come a time when the kids would want to sit with their folks and notice how much fun it is to spill guts. What’s a parent to do? Act all clean all of a sudden?

Not exactly. One simple way to deal with it is to treat games like movies. Most people can discern for themselves whether the content is appropriate for a child or not. If it’s too gory or too sexy, you probably won’t want your toddler in the same room as you are. It’s like porn, in a way. Everybody’s watched some once in a while but nobody takes their kids watching with them.

It’s a far cry from hypocrisy to limit what your kid gets into his system. During the formative years of a child, it’s essentially anything goes in terms of contextualization of content. What he does and does not see or play could be vital for his future. We all know that violent games per se don’t turn kids into gun-toting thugs. Studies have shown that many times. The only ones pushed to shooting by games are those who were either mentally disturbed or had violent tendencies in the first place. That’s the bottomline.

Will we let our kids play future versions of the GTA and Gears of war games? Sure. We know there’s little if any chance at all that it would result in actual violence, but let it all come in due time. That time would be right around the day when they know what right from wrong is and what not to do at home.

To read Wired’s full essay, follow the read URL.