Perhaps I'm a bit biased, just having turned 15 myself, but 12-14 year old kids should be allowed to play games such as Modern Warfare, Battlefield, and others. I know many people who have consoles, or just use PCs, and nearly all of them play rate 'M' games, and have been for a couple years. I got Halo, my first 'M' game, for Christmas about 2 years ago, and it really didn't change me as a person whatsoever. I didn't go around cursing people out anymore than I already had been, not to say it was something I indulged in on a daily basis. However, I think to prolong inexposure to violence is actually more harmful than providing it at an earlier age. I'm not saying that 9 year old kids should be shooting each other with machine guns, but take a moment to open your mind, and listen. Here's an analogy, when I was little, my parents always had a bowl of candy available around the house. Therefore, candy was never a big deal for me and my brother, as it was always there. About once a week we would ask for a small piece of candy, and that was that. When I had friends over, they gaped at the bowl of candy, and pleaded and nagged to go get candy. My brother and I never understood the big deal. This is because keeping something for something only makes people want it more, it's just human nature. A 'the grass is always greener on the other side' kind of thing. It works the same way for violent video games. My neighbor has two younger siblings, age 6 and 9, and he's my age. His parents are very strict with game ratings, two years ago he wasn't even allowed to have T games. He goes to crazy extents to play these violent video games. Whenever he's over, he always wants to play Halo, or COD, or something else. Last month, he even got his friend to buy Black Ops for him at GameStop in exchange for 90 dollars. The lack of it causes him to incorporate it into everything, as a mitigator. He's one of those kids who was a military nut, calling everything squadron this, and Bravo that. It's just unhealthy, and it gets him into trouble sometimes. He would have been better off just playing the games his parents forbade him. In conclusion, (quite the little essay this ended up becoming) while it's true there are ages when playing violent games is unnatural, waiting to be 17-18 (Sorry, I don't remember the restriction on 'M' games legally) before playing these games is also bad. In the words of Andy Samberg, the area's grey in a 1-2-3 way. Perhaps I'm a bit biased, just having turned 15 myself, but 12-14 year old kids should be allowed to play games such as Modern Warfare, Battlefield, and others. I know many people who have consoles, or just use PCs, and nearly all of them play rate 'M' games, and have been for a couple years. I got Halo, my first 'M' game, for Christmas about 2 years ago, and it really didn't change me as a person whatsoever. I didn't go around cursing people out anymore than I already had been, not to say it was something I indulged in on a daily basis. However, I think to prolong inexposure to violence is actually more harmful than providing it at an earlier age. I'm not saying that 9 year old kids should be shooting each other with machine guns, but take a moment to open your mind, and listen. Here's an analogy, when I was little, my parents always had a bowl of candy available around the house. Therefore, candy was never a big deal for me and my brother, as it was always there. About once a week we would ask for a small piece of candy, and that was that. When I had friends over, they gaped at the bowl of candy, and pleaded and nagged to go get candy. My brother and I never understood the big deal. This is because keeping something for something only makes people want it more, it's just human nature. A 'the grass is always greener on the other side' kind of thing. It works the same way for violent video games. My neighbor has two younger siblings, age 6 and 9, and he's my age. His parents are very strict with game ratings, two years ago he wasn't even allowed to have T games. He goes to crazy extents to play these violent video games. Whenever he's over, he always wants to play Halo, or COD, or something else. Last month, he even got his friend to buy Black Ops for him at GameStop in exchange for 90 dollars. The lack of it causes him to incorporate it into everything, as a mitigator. He's one of those kids who was a military nut, calling everything squadron this, and Bravo that. It's just unhealthy, and it gets him into trouble sometimes. He would have been better off just playing the games his parents forbade him. In conclusion, (quite the little essay this ended up becoming) while it's true there are ages when playing violent games is unnatural, waiting to be 17-18 (Sorry, I don't remember the restriction on 'M' games legally) before playing these games is also bad. In the words of Andy Samberg, the area's grey in a 1-2-3 way. |