Comments on: Games and Television :: How Closely Are You Watching Your Children?

By: Violent Video Games and Violent Behavior - Correlation: Not Cause and Effect

Violent Video Games and Violent Behavior - Correlation: Not Cause and Effect — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 19:18:29 +0000

[...] back in November, Derek wrote an article titled Games and Television :: How Closely Are You Watching Your Children? and after reading it, I started work on an article responding to it. However, my response got [...]

By: Kelvin Kao

Kelvin Kao — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 09:14:46 +0000

Some parents' theory is, their kids is going to be at their friend's places, and you know at some point they will be shown something that might be seen as inappropriate anyway, so it's better to just show the kids the stuff at home so the parents can be there to explain it. I don't necessarily agree with that 100%, but I can't deny that it does have some merits. Kelvin Kaos last blog post..Video Chat

By: Nick

Nick — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 01:14:31 +0000

I am glad to read the last part where you say you're not blaming it on the movies and video games even though thats how most of the post sounds...I agree that it's more about involvement and the parents than about what games and such that the kids are engaged in. I actually just realized and interesting paradox that I might have to post about... Nicks last blog post..Under The Bridge: A Literal Music Video

By: Charlie on PA Tpk

Charlie on PA Tpk — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 17:25:24 +0000

We keep things in our home under control, overall. Recently I've discovered OpenDNS as an excellent way to keep tabs on what web site are visited by my kids (13 and 5). As they are enrolled in a cyber school, the oldest often has exclusive access to his PC, but there are no 'locked' doors where the Internet is concerned. The oldest does have a TV in his room, but presently has only a DVD & VCR only; we'll get him cable, eventually, and we'll review appropriate parental controls when we get there. We're pretty involved in getting to know the parents of the boys' friends, and as of yet we've not encountered the problems with video games you've mentioned. When there are M rated games, the parents know we wouldn't approve, and they make it clear to their kids they aren't to be played around our kid. The parents have not expressed a problem with our request, and in one case has told us they will discuss with their spouse our reasoning, and may do likewise with their own kid. Charlie on PA Tpks last blog post..Back again

By: Daniel

Daniel — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 16:38:37 +0000

When I was growing up, things were too strict, I felt. So with our oldest who just turned 8, we give her a little more lee-way and put some of the responsibility on her shoulders.

Not to get too long winded in a comment, but regarding video games, she doesn’t like anything that’s not kid-friendly because, quite frankly, she’s like me and when she plays a video game she doesn’t want to spent an hour learning how to play. Video game time is precious so she wants to be able to pick up that controller and be on her merry way!

With movies and TV, we don’t have cable TV but we do buy some series on DVD (Friends, Scrubs, Simpsons, etc). Some of the material in Friends is borderline, in my opinion, for kids but our daughter is very mature for her age and we have a very open Q&A policy in our home. If she sees something she doesn’t understand, she can ask and we’ll answer her as much as we can. She recognizes that some behavior in TV shows, which are designed to depict “real life,” isn’t smart or acceptable in our home.

Movies are a different issue. When she was 3 or 4 my in-laws saw fit to let her watch Lord of the Rings movies with them. So, from a very young age she was exposed to fantasy-type movie violence. I was not a happy camper. Something interesting happened as a cause of that, though: that violence doesn’t freak her out or make her a more aggressive child. The rub is that animated violence, like in The Lion King, scares the bejeezus out of her. Somewhere, there became a disconnect where she knew movies with fighting by people in costumes was pretend and fake, however, any cartoon violence confuses her, I think, and part of her thinks the daddy lion really did get killed.

We have let her watch things younger than some other parents, such as Harry Potter movies, Pirates of the Carribean, Iron Man, and so forth, where with some families the movie action/violence would upset them.

My wife and I will still pre-watch a movie to make sure it’s still appropriate for our daughter (if there’s any doubt to begin with) and we have had no issues with telling her she can see it when she’s older.

Daniels last blog post..Site Update