I was in blockbuster one day and the patron in front of us was purchasing the game called "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" which can be played on the playstion 2 or Xbox systems. The store clerk began to explain to her the rating system and why she should not be purchasing the item for her teen. Needless to say, the parent purchased the game anyways. Yes, we all have the right to let our children view what we want them to view at any time, but this game has you going into strip joints as part of the game along with the killing and shooting that most other games have. Not to mention the vulgar language that is used.
I am going to start out by explaining the meaning of those ratings as I found them on http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp :
EARLY CHILDHOOD
Titles rated EC (Early Childhood) have content that may be suitable for ages 3 and older. Contains no material that parents would find inappropriate.
EVERYONE
Titles rated E (Everyone) have content that may be suitable for ages 6 and older. Titles in this category may contain minimal cartoon, fantasy or mild violence and/or infrequent use of mild language.
EVERYONE 10+
Titles rated E10+ (Everyone 10 and older) have content that may be suitable for ages 10 and older. Titles in this category may contain more cartoon, fantasy or mild violence, mild language and/or minimal suggestive themes.
TEEN
Titles rated T (Teen) have content that may be suitable for ages 13 and older. Titles in this category may contain violence, suggestive themes, crude humor, minimal blood, simulated gambling, and/or infrequent use of strong language.
MATURE
Titles rated M (Mature) have content that may be suitable for persons ages 17 and older. Titles in this category may contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language.
ADULTS ONLY
Titles rated AO (Adults Only) have content that should only be played by persons 18 years and older. Titles in this category may include prolonged scenes of intense violence and/or graphic sexual content and nudity.
RATING PENDING
Titles listed as RP (Rating Pending) have been submitted to the ESRB and are awaiting final rating. (This symbol appears only in advertising prior to a game's release.
Have you ever walked into the stores to see how many games they actually have for the systems that are meant for ages 3-10 per say. I have not seen one educational game for gaming systems since Nintendo came out with their origional version of the Nintendo gaming system.
Even a game like Lego Starwars has ton of shooting and killing in the game. I know Star Wars is about good versus evil, but why don't the companies make more educational games that are geared toward the younger crowd. Like solving puzzles in the game using mathematical equations geared for a specific age level. Even games that a 3 year old can play to help them learn to recognize letters and numbers. Yes, they do have games like that for the computer, but most 3 year olds dont understand why so many keys in front of them when they could just have a few and learn something other than destruction, foul language, nudity and how to shoot someone. All too often I hear that saying, "The people in the video game don't die!"
There have been studies done that say that video games do help with eye hand coordination which is a good thing, but if a child cannot spell well, what good is a video game that they would prefer to sit in front of instead of doing their studies. As a mother of a child who is ADHD and ODD, my child's playing games and watching tv has become somewhat of a reward for him doing good and doing what he is suppose to be doing.
I guess as a parent, I wish that there were more educational games made by companies like Nintendo, Xbox and others like them for kids to learn from.
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BTW Trish, I don't have a YMCA either. Bummer...