Indy bans gorey games.

[teresafannin]

As a mother, I very closely monitered what my son watched on tv, in the movies & listened to on the radio. One thing that people need to do is look at age appropriate games. I wouldn't want my 8 year old niece to watch the same movies my 17 year old son did. When he was little, we stayed away from movies & television shows that were too graphic. As he grew older, we discussed the movies, video games, etc. I don't have a problem with arcades having a separate section for more adult oriented games, much in the same way that we do try to keep kids out of bars, porno movies, etc. I can't take my 8 year old niece to any of the local arcades because to get to the games that she likes, we have to go by very graphic video games & her parents & I don't feel she is ready to see stuff like that. I agree that it has gotten very easy for some parents to blame the problems their kids have on society. Ultimately, parents have to be responsible for their kids, I did the best I could & my son turned out great. The violence children are exposed to does have an effect, there is no way it can't. Most kids are taught the difference between fantasy & reality, but for those who aren't, the results can be deadly. I really don't think Ducktails can be compared to a video game with exploding body parts. Stores that sell alcohol, cigarettes or porn to minors pay fines, why should an arcade be exempt, especially if it is a law. I am curious as to how a law like that came to be passed. Someone must have wanted it, I seriously doubt that a law such as this came about as a whim. How many of us are involved enough in our communities to actually know what laws are being passed. If you don't agree with a law or stature, go in front of the city council, state legislature, etc & give your opinion. Because of what happened to my son, I will be spending part of next year at the state capitol working to improve mental health laws in Texas. If you aren't out there, being involved in the political process, don't bitch if you don't like what is being done. Get involved & change it. If more people would get involved in what goes on in their communities, a lot of the problems we have in this country could be solved. Sorry for the long rant, but if most of us worked as hard as we whined, this would be a much better world.

As for the sex vs. violence debate. If I had to choose, I would rather have my children watch a sex movie than someone being dismembered slowly with a chain saw or riddled with bullets.

[Edited by teresafannin on 10-24-2000 at 08:28 PM]

 

[Purple Haze]

I do have kids, and I am prepared for the old birds and bees thing you are referring to. Strippers have very little to do with reality, and so do video games. I am not against either, and I feel strongly for the rights of adults to have access to whatever greases the weinie.

As far as porn and violence go, they have nothing to enrich my ten year-old's mind. Garbage in, garbage out.

Glad you turned out okay.

 

[CelestialBody]

 

[teresafannin]

Thank you Celestial Body. The man who committed the murders of my son & 6 others was seriously disturbed. His family had tried for years to get him help, but as an adult, there was nothing they could do. Under Texas law, contact has to be made before a person is considered dangerous. Unfortunately, the contact that this man made resulted in 8 people killed in less than 15 minutes. By all accounts, this man had an average upbringing, good Christian family, etc. Somewhere along the way, something changed & no one could figure out where it all went wrong. I don't think there is any one factor that can be blamed in a situation like this, but if I can in any way prevent it from happening again, I owe it to my son & the others to try to make a difference.

 

[CW]

that's a bunch of bullshit. parents hould be responsible for their children, not the government.

EXACTLY and AMEN !!!! It's high time to get parents reinvolved with supervising and raising their kids. WHY does there need to be any law to force parents to act responsibly ? Are the parents so self centered that they just can't be bothered with raising their own kids? Or is it just that they don't give a damn? Is it just too easy to cast the blame elsewhere and thus justify their kids actions as a product of society ?

Lots of questions, and few answers.

I do wonder at the silliness of laws and people at times.

 

[teresafannin]

If this arcade law is so bad, why not throw out the laws that regulate the sale of alcohol, tobacco, guns, etc to minors. If I remember correctly these laws have been on the books for years, most of them were enacted before anyone heard of Paducah or Columbine. If we are going to hold parents solely responsible, why did our parents help get these laws passed? I am still waiting to hear what those of you who have a problem with these laws are doing to make your voices heard in the RL. Whining about it on a BB isn't going to make a legislator, city commissioner or whoever runs your community change their mind. If you don't like what the government does, get off your ass & work for change. One of the biggest problems in this country is apathy & I have very little sympathy or patience for people who would rather sit & whine than to take action.

 

[Weird Harold]

WHY does there need to be any law to force parents to act responsibly ?

I could have sworn that the law affects arcade owners rather than parents. If arcade owners are so greedy that they feel a need to put the goriest games at the front to attract customers, then they need to be told to separate them from the games suitable for younger players.

As a parent and grandparent, I wouldn't consider using an arcade as a babysitter. I also wouldn't consider patronizing an arcade that didn't group it's games so that gory games are always visible no matter which game you choose to play or let your children play.

This law is an aid to parents, not a substitute for parents.

 

[Dixon Carter Lee]

This has absolutely nothing to do with a parent's responsibility. As a parent I have the right to expect decent conduct in public areas. Strip joints and bars are restricted areas. The room for the Adult Videos is a restricted area. Video games that show men and women holding guns, shooting victims in the face and body, with blood spurting out, and voice overs of screaming, are not not appropriate for general public viewing. If the arcade is restricted to adults and kids get in, parents are being lax. If the arcade, which is a public commercial store, allows overtly violent and/or sexual material to be openly viewed and my kid sees it, the arcade is being lax.

Substitute the hypothetical arcade for a video store. Is it okay to place a "Sodomania VI" video box next to "E.T."? No, it isn't. There are photos of naked people engaged in sex on that box. Should parents wondering about going into a video store "know" that fucking and sucking will be in plain sight and monitor their children by not letting them go in to help pick a movie for a night's entertainment? Forget the kids, what about adults? We still have deceny standards, and we all have the right to not be accosted by pornography if we don't want to look at it.

So, the video store puts the adult material in a separate room. The matieral is now "restricted", though perfectly accessible to those who wish to indulge.

No free speech right are violated. Daddy can get a stroke flick and little Timmy can check out the latest "Land Before Time" opus without having to wonder why the girl is trying to eat that man's pee-pee.

Now go back to the arcade. Asteroids and Skee-ball and the game where you have to pound the little frogs is next to "Killer Zombies" which features a teaser video of girls in bikinis having their hearts ripped from their bodies by Zardoff the Evil Whatever. An adult puts in a quarter and more mahem and displaced organs spill over the screen, threatening to leak out and dampen the industrial carpeting with blood.

Little Timmy looks up from his "Catch the Weasle" game and catches an adult yelping as he shoots steel tipped bullets into screaming henchmen.

Are you saying this situation is okay because it's violence, and not sex?

Don't kid yourself, the arcades WANT little kids in there. There are games for them. Plenty of games for them. And if they're going to court six and seven year olds there is absolutely nothing wrong with expecting them to keep extremely violent and graphic material "restricted."

 

[CW]

WHY does there need to be any law to force parents to act responsibly ?

This law is an aid to parents, not a substitute for parents.

Okay, I'll agree that it's DESIGNED AS AN aid to parents. Even the best of parents can't always know what their minor children are doing. Just like the laws governing cigarette purchase and usage by minors, and those regulating alcohol consumption, and those that regulate handguns, etc,,, those are aids to parenting. ( NOT SAID TONGUE IN CHEECK )

BUT, key in on the word AID.

Unfortunately too many parents accept these aids as being a substitute for their involvement in their childs up bringing,,, and thus they instill no moral guides for the child to fall back on when the dictates of society need to bucked. As the old saw goes, laws are made to be broken,,, And therein lies the problem that I have with the whole scenerio.

Enact the laws and hope for the best. At least that way society has some way of holding someone responsible. Though me thinks that the wrong someone is being punished.

 

[Jester]

(oops)

[Edited by Jester on 10-24-2000 at 11:22 PM]

 

[CW]

DOUBLE POSTED ,,, sorry folks

[Edited by CW on 10-25-2000 at 08:50 AM]

 

[Jester]

(sorry again, problems going' on)

[Edited by Jester on 10-24-2000 at 11:23 PM]

 

[Jester]

Alright, I'll admit that I've always had a huge problem with people trying to ban/blame video games for the violence contained within them. As far as I'm concerned, it's the same as people blaming bad occurances on music, television, D&D, etc. The thing is, it's never as simple as that!
I've grown up always being able to see violent and/or sexual images and themes on TV, in movies, etc. Sure, they have to have had an influence, but that's only one side of it. It hasn't been adverse for me because of who I am and how I was raised. I am also fully aware that just because I turned out okay, doesn't mean that eveyone will.
I think that if there is something 'off' in a person's makeup, it will come out regardless of the influences present, be they positive or negative.
I realize that the people who passed this law were doing what they thought would be best. The problem is, it's effectively punishing the whole for the actions of the few. And personally, I've always chafed at restrictions like that.
I don't see anything wrong with reorganizing the games in an arcade into more specific sections. I think that assesing the owners a fine will ultimately change nothing. I also think that if a child is raised with certain views, those will carry through and this type of thing will hold no interest for them. I think that this kind of law is unnecessary and ill-advised. There are better ways to spend enforcement and parental efforts. It will ultimately prove to be a relatively unenforced law except when someone wants to try to make a point.

 

[RoseThorn]

Just my two cents here (just don't yell at me, I'm an RPer not a...Discussioner?):

I live around people who try to shield their children. They home school them, only let them watch approved programing, etc. and God help them when Mommy and Daddy aren't there anymore and they have to face the world. Not that homeschooling is bad, but with all the negative experiance I've had I don't exactly rate as it's #1 fan.

I know you might find this meaningless but, while I agree some restriction is good, there's always such a thing as too much. I personally hate restrictions, censorship, not because of it's 'good' sides, but because it restricts your rights. And though it sounds corny...The more you give up the less you have.

*goes and hides again*

 

[CelestialBody]

 

[Purple Haze]

I thought this thread was about violent video games, It's become a thread about shitty parenting. There's plenty of that going on.

The whole problem here is the question of who decides what is publicly accessable to children, the government or the video game industry. Who do you trust?

I have to side with the former on this issue because I have no control of the latter.

 

[CelestialBody]