Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto: Would you let your 6 year old play?

matilda.cs

Gordon_Hose wrote: »

Sorry, but there is a reason these games are 18 rated. As a parent myself your posts disgust me in every conceivable way.

My pleasure xx

matilda.cs

My son played Lego batman this morning. In Lego batman, you control either Batman or Robin and you are required to beat the crap out of a CPU player every 30 seconds.
But, because it has U on the box, it's ok.
There is so much conflict on this site, some from people who don't have kids (how can they say?)
Essentially, how we bring up our children is up to the parents.

I work on a complete honesty basis my children.
If they ask me a question, I will answer it. Honestly.

My kids' favourite band is green day which features many swear words. We often discuss these words and talk about their meaning.

As an example, there is a lyric that says "my little drama queen....she's old enough to bleed now" my son was singing it and I felt that it should be a topic of discussion. He now knows about periods.

Ratings in games and films are largely political, and made to cover the masses without consideration for the individual. I wouldn't let my children watch or play a game without me playing it first, and proofing it.

I think that protecting your child from THE NEWS is disgusting... The news is REAL LIFE and is important to a child's development. They need to understand the world they are living in. How can anyone say that have their child's best intentions in mind, when they shelter them from facts and truth.

By hiding the reality of life, you are essentially ensuring they only hear propaganda that you believe is true.

The fact is, children will still be abducted from supermarkets, raped, and murdered. The difference between my kids and yours, is that my kids will know the dangers of talking to "that man" whereas your kids won't.

My kids have just played CoD for at least a year, and yesterday we bought an air rifle. They have a respect for the rifle as they have seen the type of damage weapons could cause to a person. It has helped to embed the reasons for acting safely and responsibly.

The OP's question will never be answered definitively as there are too many posters who either, have no kids, or haven't played the games.

That's not to mention the COMPLETE DIFFERENCE between CoD and GTA...

Chickabiddybex

No

It is not important in my opinion to let a child SEE the atrocities of the world (example, gassed children in Syria).

This isn't a black and white issue. It is very specific to the age of the child, the nature of the news, how graphic it is, etc. I think it is good to tell kids what is happening in the news but as with everything of this nature, the parent should view it first and make a fully informed decision before exposing their child.
(In my opinion)

Flyonthewall

No

matilda.cs wrote: »

My son played Lego batman this morning. In Lego batman, you control either Batman or Robin and you are required to beat the crap out of a CPU player every 30 seconds.
But, because it has U on the box, it's ok.

People don't break up into box like peices though. Sure they don't scream or cry out in pain either, which you do get in other games, plus there's no blood in Lego games and they don't look like real people/creatures. Guns don't sound real either.

Lego Batman is actually 7+ though not U/3+.

There is so much conflict on this site, some from people who don't have kids (how can they say?)
Essentially, how we bring up our children is up to the parents.

You don't need to have kids to know that them seeing loads of violence and sexual content is bad. It's not what I want to see as an adult. I also know that as a kid I didn't want to see such things and wouldn't have understood the sexual content, nor would I have wanted to know too much about it.

I work on a complete honesty basis my children.
If they ask me a question, I will answer it. Honestly.

My kids' favourite band is green day which features many swear words. We often discuss these words and talk about their meaning.

As an example, there is a lyric that says "my little drama queen....she's old enough to bleed now" my son was singing it and I felt that it should be a topic of discussion. He now knows about periods.

A lot of songs without the swearing are actually far worse for their meanings. Not that kids should listen to songs with the swearing - you can always find edited versions! However, most kids don't realise what they're singing about. I generally think that's probably for the best though as they're too young often to know and they don't need to understand it to like a song.

If they ask about it it's a bit different, but depending on the kid, their age and the song depends on how much you should tell them.

I think that protecting your child from THE NEWS is disgusting... The news is REAL LIFE and is important to a child's development. They need to understand the world they are living in. How can anyone say that have their child's best intentions in mind, when they shelter them from facts and truth.

By hiding the reality of life, you are essentially ensuring they only hear propaganda that you believe is true.

The fact is, children will still be abducted from supermarkets, raped, and murdered. The difference between my kids and yours, is that my kids will know the dangers of talking to "that man" whereas your kids won't.

There's a difference between filtering the news or explaining things to them in your own words without the graphic images and telling them the world is a happy place with magic unicorns, dancing flowers and pretty rainbows everywhere. They can know the reality without seeing the horrible stuff they show on the news.

There's the saying "never talk to strangers." One simple saying that a kid can understand and follow. Most don't think to question it, they just don't talk to strangers. People have said that for years. You don't need to show them the news of some kid who got kidnapped, raped and murdered.

You don't need to scare kids to make them understand what they should and shouldn't do.

That's not to mention the COMPLETE DIFFERENCE between CoD and GTA...

The gameplay is totally different, the amount of violence is not. All them types of games have adult themes in common regardless of what the game actually is.

matilda.cs

The violence is different in CoD and GTA.
Have you played both?

Flyonthewall

No

matilda.cs wrote: »

The violence is different in CoD and GTA.
Have you played both?

Yes. It's still violence though and both are rather realistic and neither are suitable for children.

sherbie28

Is there an alternative like GTA but suitable for an 11 year old? We are having a heated debated with said 11 year old and was hoping to find an alternative. Thanks

Flyonthewall

No

sherbie28 wrote: »

Is there an alternative like GTA but suitable for an 11 year old? We are having a heated debated with said 11 year old and was hoping to find an alternative. Thanks

Driver San Francisco is a 12 age rating. It's available on the PS3 and the xbox 360. Most mission style games like GTA are at least a 15 rating if not 18 due to the fact the idea is to kill people, steal cars, involves bad characters (that swear) etc.

What exactly do they want from a game? The missions, shooting, action/adventure, a mix of things? Also what platform (e.g. PS3, Xbox 360, Wii) would you want the game on?

StockportGerbil

No

As the parent of a 10 year old I do think it's a bit of a balancing act in determining what is and isn't acceptable for him.
At times I do wonder who decides the age ratings and whether they've actually played the games.

Whilst current GTA and COD I think are no-nos (much to his irritation as younger friends and family are allowed to play them), I'm comfy enough with Halo (rated 15), Rome and Medieval total warfare (again rated 15 I think) and all the sonic games (at least one of which is rated as a 12 bizarrely.)

Halo and World of Warcraft (which at his age again I think is a no) have spawned loads of figures / toys clearly aimed at 5-6 years olds in supermarkets as well as toy shops. Burnout Paradise and Simpsons Hit and Run are OK according to the ratings but I do have some misgivings about content.

Oh well - no-one said it was going to be easy! :-)

Kevin

ITonyI

No

sherbie28 wrote: »

Is there an alternative like GTA but suitable for an 11 year old? We are having a heated debated with said 11 year old and was hoping to find an alternative. Thanks

I've heard good thing about LEGO City Undercover, basically that it's GTA LEGO. The only thing is that it's a WiiU exclusive game...