Jeremy Ports #6

10 Video Games to Cross Off Your Child’s Gift List[NYTimes]
When it comes to video entertainment, my daughter still prefers wholesome sports, arcade and music-themed games. But many young children and teenagers are attracted to the over-the-top characters, graphics and game play found in action-thriller titles better suited for older players.
The Web site for Common Sense Media, which offers guidance on the content of movies, music and video games, offers a list of the 10 “cool” games kids want, but parents may want to veto:
A lot of this season’s most talked-about games include ones with excessive violence, negative role models, extreme gore, sociopathic behavior and other things that have been proven to have a negative effect on children.
Studies have linked video game violence to increased aggression and excessive game playing to lower grades. But there is also no denying the dramatic and technical appeal of many of the new games on the market. A game like Dragon Age: Origins, from Electronic Arts, has won rave reviews in the gaming community for its movielike images and engaging story line. But the game is rated M for mature audiences of 17 or older, with intense violence, blood and sexual content. As the trailer shows, the game features combat, decapitations and swords plunged into the chests of both people and dragons.
To learn more about video games and ratings, go to the Web site of the Entertainment Software Rating Board. Here are 10 of the most popular games not to give to children, based on advice from Common Sense Media:
Assassin’s Creed II: Realistic action and historical accuracy, but the player takes on the role of an assassin who relies on an arsenal of weapons.
Borderlands: Strong language, human enemies used as target practice, mature humor and lots of blood and gore.
Brutal Legend: A violent cartoon fantasy action game that includes the use of a double-sided axe to hack at demonic armies.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2: Contains an optional level where the player can go undercover as an enemy terrorist.
Dead Space: Extraction: Blood spurting out of victims’ bodies, human carcasses littering the floor, blood-stained walls and floors, and copious screams of torture put it over the top.
The remaining five games on the list are:
Dragon Age: Origins
Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony
Demon’s Souls
Left 4 Dead 2
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

I think this version of social control is a great idea. Children are asking their parents for extremelly violent video games and the parents do not have a single clue what is involved in the video game. Children are being exposed at even earlier ages to violent and sexual acts and it the job of the parent to know what they are purchasing for their children. Now obviously I think that this decision should ultimatley be made by the parent, but if they are not up to date on what is involved in the video game, then who is there to tell them that this is not kid friendly other than the M rating for 'mature rating' that is printed on the box. Most parents might not even know that this is the rating so a list like this is a great idea and a more positive example of social control.