This is what led to the Byron Report in the UK......very young kids playing violent or otherwise adult oriented video games.....I find it not only strange that parents don't seem to know what they're buying for their kids, much less what their kids are doing online.
Parents need to be educated in what Video Games entail- I remember when I was a kid I had Technocop for the Genesis- a game where if you shot someone they'd spew blood all over the place.....I had The Terminator, when I got older I had Final DooM, I played Duke Nukem 3D, I got MGS even though it was a 15, Alien 3 even though it was an 18 (and **** and hell, I even had Burn:Cycle for the Phillips CD-i, and it was an 18. I turned out fine, but all of those titles were singleplayer, I was exposed to the game's content ONLY. Now, we're in the advent of a digital world, where the web is increasingly important to the world's people, and as such, online gaming adds a human element that is intrisically more offensive that the game's content usually is.
For example, few would argue the harm with Valve's Counter:Strike; it's a game with minimal blood set on the backdrop of Law vs Chaos, not really too harmful. Now add humans running around bragging about 'Doing your mom' and spraying Goatse and Tubgirl as well as porn sprays and other highly and epicly inappropriate material for children and young teens; it becomes something bigger than billed- it becomes inappropriate not by design, but by freedom of players to break rules and be as obnoxious as possible.
This has filtered through to most games now- you'll find Halo 3 Players tea-bagging each other for laughs and then explaining over the mic what they're doing, or Gears Players 'Playraping' with a chainsaw and forward movement- the 11 year old who got a 360 for his birthday with Halo 3 (The main flagship title during the Christmas period) suddenly knows something he shouldn't.....and thinks this is hilarious, or normal, and pretty soon he's bragging to mates- however, this kid isn't alone- turns out he's part of the manykids in schools now that talk about these violent online games as normally as their favourite TV shows.....
It's the same for most games, most games have people flaming each other for no apparent reason other to antagonise. These so called 'Griefers,' or 'Grief-players' create a cool image to kids, as they see a strong and funny personality cause grief to other players- monkey sees, monkey dos, and soon kids become griefers themselves. This isn't scaremongering, I know this is fact because I know enough kids that are mates with my brother, enough kids from XBL, and enough kids that connect to COD4 to annoy and shout down the mic to know this to be true.
Kids playing games meant for the core 18 - 35 Age market has gone way beyond the whole 'Games are damaging them' argument- it's not the games that are teaching kids to be obnoxious bastards, its the human interaction therein that's moulding their way of being, it's the seeing and hearing of content they're not supposed to see or hear (EG: Genetalia sprayed on a wall during a CS:S game.....) that's causing alot of the problems, and the media and such blame the games manufacturers.....I blame people themselves, but moreover, I overridingly blame the parents for buying with Blind Ignorance without knowing a goddamn thing about what they're buying. They're the ones that need educated, while we're left alone to play games in peace.
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