Researcher Suggests Parents Be Jailed For Buying Mature Games For Kids

Written by: Jason Winter (@winterinformal) | August 1, 2012 11:29 am

39 Comments

Are you a parent? Did you buy an M-rated (or PEGI 16) game for your child? Do you live in the UK?

If you answered “yes” to all of those, then someone thinks you should be put in prison.

Responding to changes in the rating system for games in the UK, Dr. Nick Robinson of the School of Politics and International Studies at the University of Leeds said that such measures weren’t enough to keep mature video games out of the hands of children and that the only alternative is to hold responsible those who directly put those games in their hands: the parents.

“To really begin to sort this issue, the state would have to be prepared to prosecute parents who purchase and allow their children to play inappropriate games.”

Dr. Robinson takes a shot or two at the manufacturers of mature games as well, saying that rating systems “legitimized the growth of more violent games as developers are shielded by the ratings framework.”

Most of us would probably agree that step is a little too severe. But what, if anything, should be done about mature games finding their ways into the hands of kids? If parental education and guidance isn’t enough, is there another solution?

Researcher Suggests Parents Be Jailed For Buying Mature Games For Kids

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Comment

http://twitter.com/dndhatcher David Hatcher

Why is it that the more education people get, the less common sense they seem to have?

A retailer should never sell a mature rated game to a minor. If a parent feels their child can handle a mature rated game, the government has no right to interfere with a parent permitting their child to play it. It is not the governments job to raise our children.
- Randall_Wolfcry
  
  It’s just arrogance. This guy has no education to make calls on what’s appropriate for children. He studies politics not psychology or child psychology which is the issue at hand. This professor dick is just so far up his own ass he thinks he has a professional opinion about everything.
- Old Ben
  
  > If a parent feels their child can handle a mature rated game, the
  > government has no right to interfere with a parent permitting their
  > child to play it. It is not the governments job to raise our children.
  
  Would you say the same about porn? What about alcohol? What about tobacco? What about guns? What about grenades?
  
  Stupid people can be parents, too. Does that mean they must be allowed to inflict their stupidity on their kids? Doesn’t society have a responsibility to protect them? And isn’t that normally done through laws?
  
  If you can fine (or arrest) some idiot who was letting his 6 year old kid “play” with a shotgun and a bottle of Jack Daniels, maybe that’s slightly preferable (for everyone involved) to waiting for the kid to get drunk and shoot someone, no?
  
  So it’s not as simple as saying “the government has no right to interfere with parenting”. Because it does, and sometimes it should.
  
  The world is full of idiotic laws that only manage to survive because they’re rarely applied (but when they _are_ applied, the result can be terribly unjust). If people start talking about enforcing them on a regular basis, maybe there will be pressure to change those laws to something that makes more sense.
http://twitter.com/Mcnugglet Garage Opener

Yes. The US/UK both should jail parents (or fine) for buying kids M rated games…
Randall_Wolfcry

UNDER!

I think game ratings should be clear about what kind of mature content is in a game (Violence, Sex, Language, Mindfuckery, etc… ) but only so PARENTS can decide what they want to expose their children to. British law can go fuck off.

This professor teaches politics, NOT PSYCHOLOGY so what the hell is he doing making calls about what’s “inappropriate” for children? Next thing he’ll be busting into hospitals shouting “It’s okay, I’m a doctor!” trying to perform surgery with his politics PhD.

I think of all the kids who played Halo when I was in high school. Imagine everyone getting toted off to jail for buying their kids Halo. That game was so softcore but it was still rated M.
http://twitter.com/MrSunrock Sunrock

OMG! The world just became just a little bit more mad then it was before. It should be up to the parents. What the hell does the state have anything to do with that?
- http://profile.yahoo.com/ITHF7XKYGVXFAPCDMDJTKHLBBU Lian Wan
  
  Well it’s the ‘School of Politics and…’ so that is not very surprising, I guess we know what sort of government Mr. Robinson wants.
Diequex

Lol at the music.

Under, come on now les’ be real
http://www.facebook.com/stradus.woods Stradus Woods

I’ll say no. But you never know the slaves of this country keep letting stuff like this happen because they don’t know any better. The media continues to tell lies all the time and they hear the lie enough that they believe it.

I love how the media never talks about these shooters being on drugs.
http://twitter.com/HallusH HallusH

great example of jobs that needs to be removed. cause all of these is just come up with few facts and pullsomething and dam! ok so lets try this.
-Dr. Nick Robinson is making a negative environment towards the gaming industry that may impact developers lifes. gaming companies and thier families. so that makes him an internet terrorist. -
i wonder if even 1 of these people have ever played any of this games to come up with shit like that.
Jay

I do think there should be fines for parents buying M rated games for small children. I remember seeing 10 year old kids falling asleep on their moms outside COD midnight releases. It’s a sad sight really…

I don’t play COD anymore, and that may be part of the reason.
Revanhavoc

As soon as I saw this I knew it had to be a Jason Winter hit. Anyway, our parents bought us rated M video games and we’re just fine. Right, havoc?

(No doubt.)
http://twitter.com/Mcnugglet Garage Opener

There is no justification for buying your kid an M rated game. If you do
buy those games for your kids, YOU are the fuel for the media’s fire on
how games are “too violent” or “games corrupt kids minds” or what ever
BS they come up with. Yes it’s only a game and no it doesn’t affect
majority of kids, but you know the media finds the few kids who it does
affect and only puts them in the spotlight. It all comes back to the parents idiocy in letting their child
play a game not meant for them. If I offended you, get over it. There’s
no reason anyone should be buying Mature, as in 17(or 18)+, games for
kids. No I’m not a parent, but if I was I wouldn’t be letting my kid
play something meant for adults. I guess prison is too harsh, but a fine should do for parent who buys their kid an M rated game. I’m tired of people blaming everything on games because parents don’t realize that they’re the ones who cause the blame. “Oh but the government can’t raise my kid!” Well if you can’t then they sure as hell will try, and the only one you should blame is yourself. My rant is based mostly on the general idea of
parents buying M games for kids not some political morons inquire.
- http://twitter.com/Hawkn93 Austin Carlin
  
  I really fail to see how you’re any better than Dr. Nick Robinson. Are you not doing exactly what he is, telling parents what they should allow their children to be exposed to? Of course it’s not the developers’ faults that kids play violent games. However, if a parent decides to let their 12 year old son or daughter play Lollipop Chainsaw Massacre, who are you to tell them otherwise? Yes, some parents should be educated more on how the rating system works, but you obviously are unaware of the MANY parents who don’t allow their kids to play M rated games, or even sometimes T rated. And a sad majority of parents who buy their children M rated games simply don’t care – they let their kids watch rated R movies, or listen to explicit music. That’s a completely different matter though, and again, it’s both a matter of whether parents should be allowed to determine what’s acceptable for their children, and whether or not it even changes the child’s behavior in a way that matters.
  
  Personally, I grew up in a house where very few mature games were allowed in until we could go out and buy them on our own. Regardless, I’ve yet to feel the urge to stab someone, or shoot anyone due to playing Halo or GTA when I wasn’t old enough or mature enough as determined by a rating system that assumes when you turn 17 you magically become mature enough to handle R movies and M games.
- Old Ben
  
  > There is no justification for buying your kid an M rated game.
  
  Maybe you don’t agree with the rating. Or maybe you think the reason for the rating is something that your kid can handle just fine (and, presumably, you know your kid better than the guys who came up with the ratings or the guys who rated that particular game).
  
  I’d say there is no justification for buying your kid a game you can’t be bothered to learn about, regardless of the rating.
- http://www.facebook.com/Sean.MP.Rice Sean M P Rice
  
  I certainly hope you haven’t ever played any mortal kombat or street fighter growing up. Or hypocrisy insues greatly. The problem with censorship; Is that if they can tell you what you can see and listen to, It stands to reason they can tell you what you can say and think. If someone is watching, listening, or playing something that is beyond their scope of knowledge; They need to (or should, rather) have other people whom they can talk about and understand the differences between the media they consume and the society they live in.
  Raising someone without the ability to Think Critically is the real crime. Life isn’t Good vs Evil or Black and White. Neither is the media that people consume.There needs to be balance between yin and yang to be able to function well. (Otherwise they turn out a wuss or a bully, that fine line of being a good person and being able to stand your ground is what lets people succeed. At least imo.)
http://www.facebook.com/jason.jenkins.73 Jason Jenkins

as far as putting blame on the developers no i dont think that should ever happen, they cant control what people do with their products any more then gun manufactures or tabacco companies or movie studios can with theirs. what i would like to see more from game developers is have them being more open about what type of violence and action we would see in their games, like with skyrim i was just going along one day playin and wack-e-slash i cut someones head off was totaly not something i was expecting…now i didn’t stop playing mind you but would have been nice to know stuff like that was in there before hand.

now parents i do feel should have some form of punishment weather it be in the form of fines or fines coupled with a very very minimal jail time (ie 5 to 10 days in county lock up and no more). anything beyond that would just be way way too much over the issue of exposing you child to video game violence.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1260066056 Steven Diaz

Under. Even with the level of ignorance today in our governments, I highly doubt they’d be dumb enough to pass this. It doesn’t make sense, if that’s the case they’d have to do it across the board as in with movies, books and so on. It’s ridiculous, the guy who suggested it lacks all logic and anyone supporting him has some serious issues. People should stay the heck away from my home and how I raise my children. Especially considering that violence and sex are already easily available to kids with almost every TV show having at least one of those.
loquitur1

The problem with creating a law like this in the US is that the supreme court has found that the right of parents to raise there children in a way they see fit is a fundamental right under the constitution and if the state tries to make any law that interferes with that right, then the law will be strictly scrutinized as to it’s validity and the state has the burden of showing they are protecting an interest of such vital importance that it is ok to violate someone’s fundamental constitutional rights.

In a nutshell, it’s hard to do.
- Old Ben
  
  > In a nutshell, it’s hard to do.
  
  They managed to do it for porn (or even non-sexual nudity), so it’s probably not all that hard.
- http://twitter.com/cipero Matt Cipriano
  
  The law wouldn’t tell you how to raise your kid. All it would do is make the rating system legally binding, therefore if you fail to follow that you are accountable for that. It’s the same thing as cigarettes and alcohol and many other things. If you are a parent and you get caught providing your children these things who are under that age limit, you will get in trouble.
Deathstar2x

This law isn’t even possible to enforce.
Uneducated parents buying mature rated games for children they don’t bother educating should not be solved with more statist interference.
- Deathstar2x
  
  16th/18th birthday, 12:01 AM, your brain magically evolves and you turn into an adult.
  
  Restrictive age system laws are absurd. If pieces of paper know the maturity of your son or daughter better than you do, there is a problem.
  - Thorghan
    
    I can totally confirm this:
    With the age of 16 I chose my last elite skill and with the magical age of 18 I was finally abla to choose my advanced class in life.
- http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
  
  Sadly it would very easy to enforce in the US. A teacher ask the unruly student what video games they play at home. If the student mentions a rated M game, the teacher could call Child Protective Services. CPS comes knocking on your door and forwards a report to the prosecutor.
Old Ben

He never says they “should be jailed”. He says that, if the law exists, the state must be prepared to prosecute people who break it. That includes things such as apprehending the game itself or making the people who gave it to the children pay a fine.
- http://twitter.com/cipero Matt Cipriano
  
  Yea, that’s how I read it. Jailtime? eh. A fine? most likely. Accountability. If there is a rating, and then they create a law to support that rating, if there were no punishments for breaking that law then it wouldn’t be much of a law.
ChristopherRuscoe

Parents need to start taking responsibly for the kids far to many people nowadays just don’t cair what there kids are doing as long as there not bothering them. prison time may be a bit much but how meny kids will be playing black ops 2, we need to teach
Parents about the age restrictions on games as most just think “oh its just a game, and games are for kids”

CWR
http://twitter.com/Lovyenn Paulina González

I like how Jason refers to a law as “going live”
- Deathstar2x
  
  I bet there’s a midnight release too!
http://www.facebook.com/people/Michael-Johnson/1353890372 Michael Johnson

Jesus Christ, England.

Millions of cameras on your streets
You practically need a license to own a plastic knife
And now you go to prison for letting your kid play a grown up game?

Why is England considered more progressive than America again?
- Old Ben
  
  Because most of them don’t believe in talking snakes…?
  - http://twitter.com/dularr Dularr
    
    Because they once believed in the divine rights of kings, but still maintain a monarchy.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_R35J5EUERGS3E6JRIQMBCDTRRY Nathan I

strangely enough, I actually feel something like this should be passed as law. Jail is too much certainly, but some sort of punishment need to be put in place to make parents take some responsibility for their own kids. All too often idiots irresponsible parents blame the government, police, teachers, weather, God, video games, TV etc for stuff that is actually their own fault.
http://twitter.com/just_izumi Izumi

I don’t think this will happen. I don’t think parents should be jailed for buying mature games for their child… I do think they should be punished in the form of a moderate fine maybe? Not just parents, anybody buying an age restricted game for somebody younger. Otherwise, what is the point of age restrictions on anything else? If someone older buys someone younger alcohol or cigarettes they get punished… What’s the difference? Gaming can be just as mentally damaging and demeaning at times to others depending on the age range.

Video games designed for the mature players expose the player to mature content and even sometimes other immature players (voice chat, etc). It can effect/change younger players in a variety of ways and sometimes parents don’t understand that or understand what gaming can be like these days. Especially if the game has online play.

Trying to teach your child some manners or respect for others? Well that can all go out the window in just five minutes during online play. Whether it be provoked by other players or not. Younger teens/children pick up what they see and it is an adults job to protect them from it, guide AND teach them better. Yes they will be exposed to it in their future, but the parent is there to teach them better before hand about respect and appropriate behaviour at appropriate times, etc.

Even a gaming awareness program wouldn’t go astray for helping parents understand game age ratings and online play better.

No I’m not saying some kid is going to go on a shooting spree or do something stupid because of a game. I’m saying that it can effect their attitude and mental ability more then anything else. Even make them physically lazy and/or addicted.
http://twitter.com/Pross182 Pross182

If they do it with games they have to do it with movies and music too
http://twitter.com/RavingRendal Matthew Ulmen

I think they should do it definitely, I’m sick of people whining about kids and then going out and buying them stuff like this they aren’t mature enough for just because the hell spawn whines if they don’t. Maybe a fine will stimulate some growth of a back bone.
http://twitter.com/Nathiest Nathiest

it’s the parents right to choose what is suitable for their child. Just as long as its not hardcore porno.
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002438898267 Adam Plymale
  
  Agreed.

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