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Captain Red

Age restrictions on movies/games.

Should we have a right to tell a child that s/he cannot view cretin material?  

24 members have voted

  1. 1. Should we have a right to tell a child that s/he cannot view cretin material?

    • Yes. Face it, children are more impressionable.
      19
    • No. Anyone of any age should be able to see any thing they want.
      5


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What I'm basicly asking is, is it right for people to say that there are some things that children (under 15,13,8 or whatever) shouldn't be able to see? I'd like to here people thoughts on the mater...

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It all comes down to the parent, in my opinion, at least as long as we're talking about "entertainment". (For the most part, at least. Manhunt, Natural Born Killers, and their ilk shouldn't be seen by children. That shit'll fuck a youngin' up. But then again, so will MTV,only in a different way . . . </tangent>)

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Bloodshedder said:
Who is "we"?

The government I guess…
Since, while some parents will try to keep an eye on what there kids are up to, most have better things to do:

Little Jimmy (aged 7): Daddy! Can you by Pulp Fiction for me?

Dad: Huh? Yeah sure whatever, as long as you stop bugging me.

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Yes. Although people argue that a 14 year old can be more mature than an 18 year old, assigning definite 'levels' of maturity for products and entertainment is the most logical thing to do.

Of course, nobody can prohibit you from showing your kids "Faces of Death 3" when they're 7, but you have to agree that children should not be exposed to such things.

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Yes, there should be age restrictions on games and movies. Even though Doom came out when I was 10 or so, my parents wouldn't let me play it or Wolfenstein until I was 13. Pulp Fiction and Seven both came out when I was like 11-13, and I didn't get to watch either until I was 17-18. Honestly, I don't think I really missed anything by seeing/playing them 3-5 years after they came out. I think it should ultimately be the decision of the parents, but oh well. Some parents just suck. I remember my dad bought Marilyn Manson's Antichrist Superstar when I was 12 or 13 because they knew it wouldn't fuck me up (any more than I was already fucked up) so there was no reason for me not to get it (despite the CD store not letting me buy it myself).

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Personally, I think there should be age restrictions, in order to compensate for dumbass parents. The thing I don't get is why people care about it so much. Maybe it's the fact that I'm 20, and so none of it affects me, but really, being deprived of mature-rated games and movies until you're 18 isn't THAT horrible, in my personal opinion.

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NO, Iv'e watched violent movies and played violent games since I was 4 or 5 and I turned out ok. If kids go out and try something they see then it's the parents fault because they didn't explain that if you kill someone, they arn't going to get back up like in a game or movie.(god I hope I explained that right)

I only tried one thing I saw on television(eat glass). :/

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Twiztid said:
NO, Iv'e watched violent movies and played violent games since I was 4 or 5 and I turned out ok. If kids go out and try something they see then it's the parents fault because they didn't explain that if you kill someone, they arn't going to get back up like in a game or movie.(god I hope I explained that right)

Good. You turned out fine, so every one will turn out fine. When I was 5 I drove a car with out any training and I did fine, so every 5 year old can just hope in a car and drive it perfectly.

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I like the rating system the way it is. It's a little bit harsh, but to make up for it, everyone's really lax about it :p.

So basically, a 6 year old isn't going to be able to watch porn, but if a 16 year old is desperate to see an R-rated movie, they'll usually find a way in.

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I think as a general rule, yeah. Mature games should have an age limit on who can buy it. those beneath 18 are screwed :P But there's absolutely nothing wrong with your parents going out and purchasing the game for you if the feel you're mature enough to handle playing the game without letting it warp your brain. I got ultimate doom for my 9th birthday. look at me now. yay.

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I'm all for censoring on age, but the RIAA, ESRB, and the like need to take a better look at what's being censored. Images of nudity(except those that are comical or subtle) almost always get grouped with images of sex. So children don't have time to become comfortable with the nude body until it's time for them to associate it with sex. At the same time, any appearance of the word "fuck" automatically warrants an R or M rating.

By the time I was 7, I heard all the curse words you could possibly imagine. Why did I have to wait 10 years to hear them? At 12, I found my dad's Playboy collection. At 14, I had already watched my share of gory movies, and I was watching pornos at 16(didn't really see the practical applications of them until then). And of course, I was playing Doom in 1993 just like almost everyone else here. Most of these were deemed by my parents accpetable for my viewing.

The only thing that I found weird was that they refused to let me watch Rocky Horror, even though the language and violence and nudity are pretty tame by today's parents. Perhaps they were concerned with the element of confused sexuality. I wonder if they'd be disappointed to learn that I became a sexual deviant anyway...

So, yes, age limit good. But these limits need to be redefined.

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It's funny that Christina Aguilara's "Dirty" video is acceptable and deemed okay, but Ministry's "Just One Fix" is not. I'd rather have my kids watch something that told them the truth and was a bit shocking than have them slowly turned into retarded consumer robots by MTV. The major problems are,where do you draw the line, is it appropriate to draw the line for someone else, and what do you do about the alarming stupidity, apathy and ignorance of the general population? The world needs better parents IMO.

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Just One Fix is banned? WTF? I don't remember anything bad in that.

Speaking of banned videos, there is a petition to ban ohGr's Majik video from MTV2 because of the anti-Bush stuff in it. Luckily, there is also a counter-petition with even more signatures. Well, not like petitions do anything anyway.

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Are you talking about petitiononline.com? Everyone and their mother has a personal crusade there. Remember two years back where some moron started a petition to change the name of the second LOTR movie because it referenced the Two Towers?

Back on topic: it'd be hard to disprove the idea that the RIAA aren't receiving bribes from major recording labels, considering the fact that videos like "Dirrty" make it on the air. We can see pictures of women degrading themselves and gold-toothed posers rapping about how they kill for a living... but we aren't allowed to hear honest stories about drug use, severe depression, or political criticism.

That's enough for now, my train of thought derailed.

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I do sorta support this. Some parents really do not want their children exposed to these types of games and these ratings (M, R, etc.) let them know what is and isn't safe for their children's eyes. If a parent chooses to ignore this, that is their choice. This isn't about what some uptight group of people think, it's about what the parents think, because that is what is really the more important bit.

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Hyena said:

... everyone's really lax about it :p.

So basically, a 6 year old isn't going to be able to watch porn, but if a 16 year old is desperate to see an R-rated movie, they'll usually find a way in.

Heh, I've seen 6 and 8 year olds at R movies. It really ruins the mood of the movie to have some kid climbing all over the front seat or getting escorted to the bathroom during the middle of the movie so he/she can "go poopie". If parents want to show mature movies to their kids, fine, do it at home. Don't ruin it for those who are of age by bringing them with you to the movie. Hire a babysitter like everyone else -- you're not "hip" or "cool" or "with it" for bringing your child to an R movie.

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Rellik said:

It's funny that Christina Aguilara's "Dirty" video is acceptable and deemed okay, but Ministry's "Just One Fix" is not. I'd rather have my kids watch something that told them the truth and was a bit shocking than have them slowly turned into retarded consumer robots by MTV.

But that's not what the industry wants, is it? I heard about "Just One Fix" in fact I have their Greatest Fits album but Christina Agulara is part of the industrial machine, so whatever she does in her music video is "ok."
I saw a video on the news a while back of a +-10 year old kid who set himself on fire (though not much harm done) because he watched MTV's Jackass the Movie. Now his parents just try to sue MTV. Who is really to blame for him setting hiself on fire from watching an R rated movie? Not to mention that the parents misdirected their anger toward MTV, instead of teaching their kid a lesson and realizing that letting him watch the movie wasn't a good idea.
I just think parenting today has gone to hell.

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Numbermind said:

Are you talking about petitiononline.com? Everyone and their mother has a personal crusade there. Remember two years back where some moron started a petition to change the name of the second LOTR movie because it referenced the Two Towers?

Yeah, petitions don't work in real life, so they especialy don't work online. The only exception to the rule is Washington state where for like $500 you can buy an official petition thing, then after getting 10,000 signatures or something, it OFFICIALY becomes something the public can vote on. I may be wrong on the price and number of signatures you need, but its something like that. Seems okay, but really it kind of creates a bizarre anarchy. Recently it has been a problem with certain rich assholes starting petition after petition to get what they want. Bleh.

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Meh I could give a fuck less what kids watch. I'v been watching gorey and disturbing movies and playing mindless killing games ever since I was young.... now I do admit it has made me more sadistic in nature because of it but since I now have that mindset I dont give a fuck about this issue. So I say watch and play what ever the fuck ya want to.

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Engrossing oneself in fictional violence is a symptom, not a cause. We are all disturbed.

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Interesting viewpoint, Fredrik...

You know, I used to be into blood and gore like a fanatic-- weird sites like rotten.com were entertaining to me. But there was this one point in my life where I couldn't take it anymore. I can trace it back to the first time I did shrooms, and I was watching TV with this guy trying to balance something like 2 tons on his head. I got this weird phantom pain like my spine was being crushed to liquid, and I eventually had to turn off the TV and go outside to get the image out of my head.

For the next three years I would have these same sensations whenever someone started talking about something painful(like sliding down a razor-edged bar, getting genitals caught in a weedwhacker, having your stomach sliced and your intestine pulled out and what not). It would get so bad that I couldn't sleep at night with these images in my head, feeling it happen to me. Nowadays I can control it, but if I smoke too much pot and someone talks about getting one's toenails pulled out I still have to leave the room. And pictures of space/planets give me vertigo or the feeling of being asphyxiated in a vacuum.

So my squeamish-ness started me thinking about being desensitized to violence, and I wonder if my avid interest in the macabre when I was younger is actually the cause of my empathic sensations. Kids are definitely exposed to violence pretty much before anything else in America, even if it's meant to be comical. Do some kids really believe that they'll only lose 10 health if they fall off of a motorcycle? If they do, does it have something to do with not having a firsthand experience with pain and injury, or does it involve a lack of compassion or basic understanding of suffering? An even scarier notion, that I to a certain extent felt when I was a child: that they know full well that people suffer through pain, and their own emotional suffering causes them to retaliate physically. That they want their bully/older brother/parent/teacher/whatever hurt as much on the outside as they do in the inside.

Well, it's a thought for the day.

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Numbermind said:

I wonder if my avid interest in the macabre when I was younger is actually the cause of my empathic sensations.

Numbermind said (a couple paragraphs upward):
I can trace it back to the first time I did shrooms


You've answered this yourself, buddy!

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Numbermind said:

For the next three years I would have these same sensations whenever someone started talking about something painful(like sliding down a razor-edged bar, getting genitals caught in a weedwhacker, having your stomach sliced and your intestine pulled out and what not). It would get so bad that I couldn't sleep at night with these images in my head, feeling it happen to me. Nowadays I can control it, but if I smoke too much pot and someone talks about getting one's toenails pulled out I still have to leave the room. And pictures of space/planets give me vertigo or the feeling of being asphyxiated in a vacuum.

I have that same problem...except the vertigo
thank you LSD

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