Why Adults Only?

" 'R' rated movies, and 'M' rated games all have one thing in common:

They were made for adults.

I've been noticing these lately more and more, and I have come to wonder why the gruesome, the gory, the vulgar, the explicit and so on is reserved for adults only. This world, I have concluded, is teaching younger people that evil is for the grown-up. And I'm not saying that's bad, in fact, thats amazingly good! But that also means that the world has been teaching adults that the evil, the explicit, the gory, the gruesome, and so on, are okay.

Is there something special about adults that makes them immune to this stuff? I don't believe so. Ever see a child murder someone? Gosh, I hope not.

This brings me to my question:

Is there a magic line that you cross when you become an adult, that permits you to corrupt your mind?

In this world, I would say yes. Why? Well look around you, it seems 18 is the point where you cross over that "magic" line to fill your mind with crap. And it saddens me when a parent buys a game like Grand Theft Auto for his 10 year-old son. But see, thats really weird, because we wouldn't think twice about it if we saw an adult buy that game.

So, all in all, why should adults be the only ones who can pollute themselves?"

- Meh Blog

(I had to repost this in here, because I accidentally posted this in the Wii discussion =P)

" 'R' rated movies, and 'M' rated games all have one thing in common:

They were made for adults.

I've been noticing these lately more and more, and I have come to wonder why the gruesome, the gory, the vulgar, the explicit and so on is reserved for adults only. This world, I have concluded, is teaching younger people that evil is for the grown-up. And I'm not saying that's bad, in fact, thats amazingly good! But that also means that the world has been teaching adults that the evil, the explicit, the gory, the gruesome, and so on, are okay.

Is there something special about adults that makes them immune to this stuff? I don't believe so. Ever see a child murder someone? Gosh, I hope not.

This brings me to my question:

Is there a magic line that you cross when you become an adult, that permits you to corrupt your mind?

In this world, I would say yes. Why? Well look around you, it seems 18 is the point where you cross over that "magic" line to fill your mind with crap. And it saddens me when a parent buys a game like Grand Theft Auto for his 10 year-old son. But see, thats really weird, because we wouldn't think twice about it if we saw an adult buy that game.

So, all in all, why should adults be the only ones who can pollute themselves?"

- Meh Blog

(I had to repost this in here, because I accidentally posted this in the Wii discussion =P)

Snyder_Trigger

I live in the USA. I'm not sure where you're from, so I can't speak for your country (unless you happen to live in the USA). Here in the USA we have a thing called "Freedom of speach". The idea is that what you may see is pollution and vile someone else may see as art. For this reason, people can make what they want to make and play what they want to play. Selling a R rated movie or M rated game to a minor is not illegal. In fact, minors very rarely have a problem buying R rated movies and have some 40-50% success rate on M rated video games.

It's simple.

Adults have to take care of their own mess. You get influenced by something and do ****ed up stuff, then you get punished for it.

Kids on the other hand is different story. If they get influenced and do ****ed up stuff, the kid gets into not as big trouble and his parents are the one that gets into big trouble.

To simply put, it is matter of responsibility. Adults are responsible to their own action so they are more "free" to do things. Kids on the other hand are responsibility of their parents, thus they aren't responsible for themselves, thus they don't enjoy as much freedom as adults.

This "magic line" you talk about isn't so black and white. The fact is that children are easily influenced. You know the old saying "monkey see monkey do". The older a person gets the more they learn right from wrong and understand the consequenses of their actions more fully. This happens quicker for some people than others so to protect those that aren't ready society tries to shelter them until they are ready to make their own choices. Once your an adult society assumes that you are the person you are going to be and that you won't be influenced to do some of the things that they see and hear in the media. My opinion is that there are things in the media (including games) that children shouldn't see, but that is up to the individual parents and guardians to decide if the children under their care are ready or not.