[Danny]

While I fully agree with your point I think the influence of games on kids is exaggerated, both by the media and society. Sure, there are SOME kids that get influenced by games and copy the behaviour they see in there, but that doesn't mean you (talking to society as a whole) should generalize all of them! SOME people like to run over others with their car. Does that mean ALL people like to do that and we should ban cars? No. What happened is that the 'older' generation which didn't understand what the hell those teenagers were doing back in the days, formulated their own conclusions. 'It's the violence! That makes them so rebellious!'. And since the media's controlled by them and people like to hear what they want to hear from them ... oh well.

My main point is that good parents should be able to judge by themselves if their kid is ready for such games. If they see certain sings their kid is not, they shouldn't allow them to play those games. Otherwise they're just bad parents.
There shouldn't be a need for a government intervention connected to the rating system, parents should do their bloody jobs.

On a sidenote, I know this sounds pretty clichй by now but I first played GTA:SA at the age of 7 and everything turned out fine. I have never been in a clash with the law and I'm planning to go to university. I think it's safe to say violent games didn't affect ME, ofcourse this is a personal thing.

EDIT:

Quote:

Originally Posted by lolumadd_ My parents clearly defined the difference between reality and fantasy in video games. They told me that games are not like real life and I was able to play maturerer games at a younger age. I'm not mentally fucked up or anything but the fact of the matter is that most parents these days are shit and DON'T make these distinctions to their children.

They also told me that when they allowed me to play GTA:SA at my age. I picked it up and it never came to my mind to perform an action I 'learned' from GTA:SA. Good parents should have this talk with their children before allowing them to play violent games, I couldn't agree more with you on that.