Should Violence Against Children in Video Games be banned?

[galaxus]

I read this article at IGN: Editorial: Do You Want to Kill Children?

Game companies have a right to do whatever they want with their product. But don't tell me its wrong to kill a child in a video game, but its OK to sell children as slaves and eventual sex workers in Fallout 3. Thats bullshit.

But quite frankly, I would like to see violence in video games if it is appropriate to the story! I am just not a fan of censorship. I mean, the 1st 30 minutes of the original Max Payne was one of the most powerful experiences I've ever felt playing a video game.... A big part of that was due to the horrible things done to his wife and child.

That is art. Games are art.

Now Do I want to see a child getting his brains blown out in Call of Duty? Not Necessarily.

Would I like to see a child's corpse or a zombie jr to paint a different picture? absolutely.

 

[Bbucko]

I'm not now nor have I ever been a gamer, so I don't have any skin in this particular game.

Having said that, there are some images of children which society feels are completely unacceptable, and explicit violence perpetrated against them is a huge taboo. Though I disagree with externally-imposed censorship, I find it sad that someone doesn't feel the responsibility to impose censorship on him/her self in this case. It seems like a no-brainer to me.

 

[b.c.]

I've played various forms of Call of Duty for some time now. Funny, I can't ever recall thinking "Gee I wish I had me a kid to kill," zombie or not.

While video gaming simulates various real life scenarios, and while the death of many of various ages might be germane to the storyline, there are certain things that one can reasonably expect to be extraneous to any reasonable gaming experience.

For example, I would not expect to be able to find a little magic "john" so I could take a crap or a piss in game play. Nor would I be able to stop for a quickie with Princess Zelda (and heaven knows she could use a good diddle or two).

Reminds me of a furor some time back over a video game in which you got to look through a rifle scope and shoot President Kennedy. WTF for?????

My two cents... anyway.

 

[LaFemme]

I dislike censorship. But when it comes to violence against children, I have to say I keep it out of the games.

If we could assume that only adult, mostly well-adjusted people were playing the games - it wouldn't be a big deal - but it's not. It's 14 year old kids, getting high and with very little parental supervision; kids with poor impulse control, inhibitions lowered by substance abuse and re-enacting what they see in their games. Since I work with these kids I see it all the time. These kids get de-sensitized to violence and do some really insane things to younger kids, peers and even adults.

I have seen parents give their kids (as young as 3) games like Max Payne, Call of Duty - all kind of adult games. Oh and horror movies - Saw and Hostel etc.

It isn't the fault of the games or the movies or TV. It is most definitely the parents' fault. But I don't know if seeing graphic violence against children is really necessary in a game format.

 

[798686]

I dislike censorship. But when it comes to violence against children, I have to say I keep it out of the games.

I have seen parents give their kids (as young as 3) games like Max Payne, Call of Duty - all kind of adult games. Oh and horror movies - Saw and Hostel etc.

It isn't the fault of the games or the movies or TV. It is most definitely the parents' fault. But I don't know if seeing graphic violence against children is really necessary in a game format.

^^This.

 

[Kotchanski]

I am a gamer, have been for many years now.

My son is 8, and a few months ago came home from school and asked if I'd buy him CoD as all his friends have it. I experienced that painful moment most parents go through, where they have to decide between the inevitable bullying their child will go through by not having it, with sticking to what they believe is right... Since I'm always right, my morals won.

I explained that the game was rated far beyond his years, explained why it was rated as such, and why I wasn't going to buckle on this particular disagreement. He accepted it, we went online, signed up to Lovefilm and added a good 50+ games to the list for him to trial that were either already known to be acceptable, or that I could take a look at first and then decide. He was more than happy with this compromise, and is now perfectly pleased with playing Ultimate Alliance (Somewhat less pleased than I am at having to look up solutions to the various stages on Youtube every 2 damned mins!)

My games of choice are WoW, Warcraft 2 and 3, SWG and the various incarnations of doom, and I have varying degrees of issues with each of them... From the blatant whoring in SWG by people who modify their chars to look like young alien girls (sorry, being a funny color, non-human really doesn't make a difference to me) to the little camp in WoW, only accessible by flying mount that has a bunch of cages baby, erm, I think trolls... I saw it once and left.

These games aren't real though, they don't look real and don't pretend to be real, which is a lot more than can be said for some.

I hate censorship, but spend 20mins in general or trade chat in WoW and you know exactly why it is needed... Things are fairly tame there, gamewise, yet chat is filled with people talking about raping one another with complete disregard for the very real experiences many have had, thinking it's amusing and entertaining to think beating the crap out of a bunch of pixels is comparable to rape. Then you've got the other lot of find it endlessly entertaining to publicly scout for 13-15yo girls, while talking about what they've just done to their little sisters...

Sure, most of it is teenage boys trying to look big and clever, showing off to their mates and "having a laugh" but if that's the kind of crap these morons find amusing, should we really be providing them with "entertainment" that suggests the behavior is acceptable?

Which leads me to games like Rapelay... Name says it all, family of 3, mother, daughter and younger daughter, you're the rapist, and you script the whole fucking thing.

In short, yes it should be banned, and this is one area where honestly, the censorship is no where near as strong as it needs to be.

 

[Ronado]

In fallout new Vegas you can't kill the children in the game. You can in fallout though if I remember.
I don't think its about the game but the gamer. If your playing a rated M game and your ten, then your parents or guardian didn't do their job. Like when that one kid who was like 13 stole a car and ran someone over because he like grand theft auto 4 a lot.