I do blame them, I worked in retail, if the parents cannot open their eyes to a child's problem, then it is their fault. If parents cannot be mature and responsible enough to take care of their child, why did they have kids in the first place?
I gotta admit for those that do have a problem with children not based by environment, but within the child mentally or psychologically (not caused by the entertainment industry or parental behavior), I can't blame them for that.
um retailers respect the ESRB, however, we do not police customers, it breaks their ammendment right to privacy. We just warn them.
Times have changed, and I see the parents do buy these games and understand the difference, because most of them are my age or older. Parents are informed enough to know what titles are being bought and do ask questions.
One of the many reason for that is because they are playing into the parents fear. You need a way to control the kids actions and the government has found a way by releasing the responsibility of morality away from the parents and imposed it on a law. (I gotta read 1984 again.... 1+1=3)
Yes, kids will play the games any means necessary, the only way to break most of these is to ensure to take away their source of entertainment, be there when they are playing games, play the games with them, reduce the amount of time being played, question their taste in games, and ask if they understand the difference between reality and fantasy.
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IMHO, I think the kids and even adults who act out violence harbor the tendency, and will carry out violent deeds with or without the influence of games. Violence is inherent in our psychology, esp in males. History, regardless of age or society teaches us that. I see games as a stress reliever, an escape, where one can vicariously act out without doing actual harm to anyone. I think this is the case for most people who play violent games...the game fills the "need", for lack of a better term. The people that take these actions into the real world and visit their fantasies on others will or would have done so regardless. Ultimately, we've seen various media blamed for the violent or just stupid (ala "Jackass" series and movie) actions of some people. The blame rests on the individual. The only exception I see in this is if the violent person has a mental illness or retardation sufficient to limit his moral judgment. Should parents let kids play games of this nature? Probably not, but every kid is different and the parents should understand their child's maturity, personality, and social influences, and make the call. There are a lot of good kids playing violent games who have never committed any violent act. It's unfair to punish the many for the sins of the few...which is one of the things that irks me to no end about the military, but that's another discussion. In the end, I think retailers should respect and follow the laws already in place, parents should do what they can to at least know what their kids are up to( it IS difficult these days..I'm not a parent myself, but I work with alot of them, and my sister has a kid and a stepson, who plays violent games and is a great kid), and society should stop coddling those who do carry out violent crimes and punish them with greater, more character building punishments...turning big rocks into little rocks worked well for a lot of years. My final thought is that if everyone who played violent games, watched violent movies, or listened to violent music acted these things out, we'd have an international epidemic of uncontrollable violence...but I think basically most of us just want a nice quiet killing spree letting the photons and pixels fall where they may.