In January, 2012, the R18+ classification for video games
was passed in Senate. Unfortunately, this has changed nothing in the way that parents are buying video games for their children. I became upset reading an
article written by a knowledgeable shop assistant; he didn't feel the ratings had discouraged parents from buying inappropriate content for their children, despite his advice. I feel like these attitudes are threatening the freedom of adults to access adult content.
Why do parents seemingly consider an R-rated game any different from a movie? Why do they just not give a damn that their kids are watching increasingly realistic graphics of people being blown to pieces or borderline pornography?
Some comments on the article, speculate that it is because parents give in to their children too easily. That is an issue that needs to be questioned too - why are parents so easily swayed? I remember when I was a kid - if my mum said 'no' it meant 'no', and I didn't get the thing I wanted. If I pushed the matter, I'd be punished.
I don’t think that we need less sex and violence in games. What I think we need are parents who are better educated about games and pay closer attention to what their kids are playing.
This quote is from Gabe, the co-author of
Penny Arcade Comics (Penny Arcade created PAX, one of Australia's largest gaming conventions). He often works with children in the capacity of a comic artist, however, during these times, he has become concerned about what the kids are being exposed to after a 7 year old girl asked him to draw Slender Man (the main antagonist from a first person survival horror game). Although it's not officially rated by the ESRB, I did find
this website and
this one on another Slender Man game. It seems like the commenters may not be aware of what level of trauma that a child can handle, every child is different, after all, but the intended audience, certainly is not children.
In recent years a lot of media attention has been brought toward a link between violence and video games, despite studies to the contrary. Many of these sensationalist articles fail to look at the root causes of these incidents. Often, the video game is merely a trigger for a pre-existing problem and if it weren't the video game, it would be something else. It's too easy to blame video games than to actually find a solution or provide support to the victims and perpetrators alike.
Here is a breakdown of a
video game scare as analysed by gaming website,
Kotaku.
