Once again I was accosted by a customer today because of an innocent comment I made. "I like the poster." The customer was buying an COD: BO 3D poster for her son. She immediately looked at me and then to her son who was 6. "It's not for him! It's for my 12 year old!"
Now, I don't care at all if she wants to buy this poster for her kids, but the defensive explanation continued and revealed that she buys Mature rated games for her children, gave her eldest his own Xbox for his room which he helped set parental controls for (and knows the password) and so on. It got me thinking. How young is too young to play these types of games?
Sure, if a parent or guardian over the age of 18 buys you the game and gives permission to play it, that's their choice. But what about playing online in a lobby with other gamers with the majority of them being 16+ and expecting the other gamers not to shout, swear, flame, hunt etc their child in this faceless, ageless lobby? The reason I got upset at this was that this woman smiled brightly and said she had actually called Xbox live a few times and got gamertags banned because she heard them tell her son to "get a pair of balls" to play in their lobby. Then she said they were also teaching him to swear. I'm sure a 12 year old hears worse at school, leave alone the online lobby of an FPS.
As someone who frequents online gameplay, I know how harsh yet how fun online gaming can be. There are always pros and cons. But I do dread when an 8 year old joins my lobby and starts screeching down the microphone of "tactics" that have nothing to do with the game at hand.
So how young is too young? It's all relative really, in my opinion. At some point you're going to be exposed to worse than what's in these games. Of course I'm not saying give GTA to a 6 year old (even if this does happen...) but don't expect the content of a game to pander to a 6 year old when the game's rating is 18.
Now, I don't care at all if she wants to buy this poster for her kids, but the defensive explanation continued and revealed that she buys Mature rated games for her children, gave her eldest his own Xbox for his room which he helped set parental controls for (and knows the password) and so on. It got me thinking. How young is too young to play these types of games?
Sure, if a parent or guardian over the age of 18 buys you the game and gives permission to play it, that's their choice. But what about playing online in a lobby with other gamers with the majority of them being 16+ and expecting the other gamers not to shout, swear, flame, hunt etc their child in this faceless, ageless lobby? The reason I got upset at this was that this woman smiled brightly and said she had actually called Xbox live a few times and got gamertags banned because she heard them tell her son to "get a pair of balls" to play in their lobby. Then she said they were also teaching him to swear. I'm sure a 12 year old hears worse at school, leave alone the online lobby of an FPS.
As someone who frequents online gameplay, I know how harsh yet how fun online gaming can be. There are always pros and cons. But I do dread when an 8 year old joins my lobby and starts screeching down the microphone of "tactics" that have nothing to do with the game at hand.
So how young is too young? It's all relative really, in my opinion. At some point you're going to be exposed to worse than what's in these games. Of course I'm not saying give GTA to a 6 year old (even if this does happen...) but don't expect the content of a game to pander to a 6 year old when the game's rating is 18.