Noah just upgraded from 12 years old to 13 years old. He went into Target with his birthday money and came out with a Wii game called "Deadrising – Chop Till You Drop" The kids play first person shooters but Tommy brought one home from a friend’s house once that had so much foul language that I had to ban it from the house. I like to keep violence in check with the children. I am realistic about it. Play acting or gaming violence is part of being a kid. Today’s games do have the opportunity to be far too graphic. This one is rated M for mature and says 17+. The element are "blood and gore," "intense violence," and "language." I have more hesitation on this one because the Wii is in the common area, it is likely to be seen by the 4 and 7 year olds.
So, my gaming friends, do I let the 13 year old keep this game or force him to return it and buy something less violent and graphic? Having the Wii spewing out profanities is probably my biggest concern.
rated M? return it. I am realistic about that stuff as weel-or at least I hope I am- and my 8 yr old has some T stuff but M would have to be maybe 15-16
“You should trust the ESRB, i.e. if it’s rated M because of violent content and “intense language,” then I’d say it’s not a family oriented game,” says my soon to be 19 year old who has played DeadRising and feels that it is”pretty darn violent”!
I use profanity as do most people my son knows (friends and family). All I expect of him is to know when it is appropriate to use and when it is not. Thats how my mom handled it and though perhaps I resort to cussing before I should, it hasn’t really caused me any serious problems in my professional or personal life that I can think of.
For a while I didn’t let him see violent or gorey movies because sometimes I think its true that once an image gets into your head it never really leaves. My parents were very anti-censorship and let me see all sorts of things at a young age. I was a little more protective of my son mbut when he was 6 or7 I rented Gremlins, he got scared, and I was shocked because I was watching Nightmare on Elm Street on 5 and loved it.
He’s been playing violent video games for a very long time and I’ve never seen any ill effect whatsoever. I don’t think he’s ever even harmed a fly, but we’re a pretty pacifist household. I think perhaps video games may even be a good way to vent frustrations.
I understand not wanting the little ones to hear those words because they don’t know when they are appropriate. My son has his xbox and tv in his room so we don’t have that problem.
I would let him keep it if he can play it when the little ones are gone. Do you let him watch R rated movies? If so I’d say there’s not too big of a difference.
I’ve played Dead Rising on the XBox, and it is a really graphic, gory, violent game. Keep in mind that I say this as a jaded horror-movie fan. I’d ban your 13 y.o. from playing it. Fun game, but the kid can wait a few more years to play.