posted on Jul, 19 2005 @ 02:20 PM
Originally posted by djohnsto77
They're not banning the games, they're just restricting the sales to adults. So if the parents want to buy the video games for their children, they
can...so this does leave it up the parents, doesn't it?
Very true, but if the parents were keeping up with their kids then why would this be an issue in the first place? I don't know, maybe I'm a special
case, but my parents made very clear the things that were good for me to partake of and what things they didn't want me to have any part of. If I
had a copy of GTA when I was 10, I'd have been grounded until I was old enough to retire and my PS2 would've been taking up space in a pawn shop.
Simple as that. No legislation needed--it's just good parenting.
Aside from that, it still won't solve the problem of the kids getting a hold of it, it'll just make it a little more difficult--and possibly even a
little more exciting to get that game. Think about it, in spite of all the laws to the contrary, how many teenagers are smoking and drinking? Never
stopped me, that's for sure. So I had to find an adult to buy me a 12 pack or smokes. Instead of that 12 pack costing 5 bucks, I had to tack on an
extra buck or two to get a friend's brother to do it. Big deal. Thankfully my parents took the time to talk to me about drinking and taught me how
to be responsible in doing it--they knew all the laws in the world aren't going to keep a kid from doing stupid stuff like that.
Same applies here. You want that new game that costs $60, but you can't talk your parents into getting it? No biggie. Throw another $10 in it and
you get someone to get it for you. Parent's are now eliminated from the equation. Still doesn't solve the problem, just another waste of ink and
paper. What makes me sick is that parents want the government to raise their children, they want to pawn the responsibilities of protecting their
kids off on someone else so they can get back to running their
soccer-mom-SUVs-and-lattes-don't-be-the-normal-kid-I-was-go-to-therapy-and-find-your-inner-child lifestyle without having to worry about having to do
anything with that new tax write off that they thought would be a great little toy for five years and then it'd be smart enough to do everything
they'd expect it to do. And when that doesn't work out, my God! Hillary was right--it takes a village to raise a kid, not a parent, this isn't
what I was getting myself into, let everyone else do the work for me. It's crap, pardon my French, but crap it is. It shouldn't have ever been an
issue to begin with.
EDIT:
Sorry about the rant, but this principle I'm complaining about is something that's bugged me for a while.
Here's an old blog I'm no longer maintaining
where I have an even longer rant if you want to get the whole point I'm trying to make with this. The language gets fairly strong (no T&C on MSN
Spaces), so you might want to keep that in mind if you check it out. And if this link is inappropriate, let me know; I'll re-edit and remove it.
[edit on 7/19/2005 by MCory1]