There is no shortcut to protect children from violent video games
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Version 0 of 1. At last! Another reason for everyone to get over-excited about video games. Thanks, headteachers’ group from Cheshire that sent a brick-subtle letter to parents threatening the involvement of the police and social services if their children are allowed access to violent video games. This is terrific work. Related: Headteachers threaten to contact police over children playing 18-rated games Actually the letter isn’t entirely misguided, especially if you consider that nearly all of the schools that make up the Nantwich Education Partnership are primary schools, a truly vulnerable age group, and that the letter also deals with social media. But the problem remains that the letter talks about the dangers of games and the internet as though it’s describing some faraway land of digital monsters and sexual predators. “Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, Dogs of War and other similar games are all inappropriate for children”, it reads, apparently so worked up about defending children from these toxic titles that it doesn’t realise one of them isn’t real (unless the headteachers’ group is referring to the 1989 Rambo clone Dogs Of War released for the Amiga and Atari ST which, on balance, it probably isn’t). The line on social media is no more rational (access “increases early sexualised behaviours” and “leaves them vulnerable to grooming for sexual exploitation or extreme violence”) and the real failure of the letter is that it’s indicative of the pervasive ignorance and indifference which seem to be what it’s striking out against in the first place. And that’s frustrating because, although it’s damagingly heavy-handed and sounds in places like a dog barking at fireworks, the letter has a point. Parents do need to take ultimate responsibility for the things their children engage with, and it’s right to point out that pervasive indifference makes it harder for everybody. As the parent of a 12-year-old I’m in the midst of making these tough decisions, partly because so many other parents seem happy for their children to play whatever they like. This sense of injustice can make resisting the pleas of your children particularly hard. I acknowledge that the “but all my friends...” argument is as old as humanity (“Freddy’s dad lets him use the hand axe all the time”) but it’s a real issue, and a symptom of parents not knowing and caring enough about what their children are playing. And the bad news here, for the Nantwich Education Partnership and fans of lazy prescriptive moralising, is that age ratings aren’t the answer. The letter’s central bit of passive aggressiveness reads thus: “If your child is allowed to have inappropriate access to any game or associated product that is designated 18+, we are advised to contact the police and children’s social care as this is deemed neglectful.” The reference here is presumably to PEGI age ratings, supplied by Pan European Gaming Information, which since 2012 has been the body responsible for the classification of games in the UK. PEGI ratings make it illegal for retailers to sell games to children under the appropriate age, but only provide non-binding advice for parents as to what their children should play (a big reason the letter’s threats seem so overblown). But what we also need to recognise is that this advice, like any given by a ratings system, is only useful as a very general guide. So, for example, the same 18 rating has been given to the games mentioned in the letter, and I have misgivings about my son playing either of them. Call of Duty is a series which features military violence and gives players an encyclopaedic knowledge of real weapons from licensed manufacturers. Grand Theft Auto V is a game in which it’s possible to hire a prostitute. But that 18 rating has also been given to The Last of Us, an apocalyptic horror which, yes, includes violent horror that many parents would not be happy for their children to see, but also elements of moral ambiguity that I was personally happy for my 12-year-old son to engage with. “I don’t know whether I’m supposed to shoot!” he shouted when he first encountered other, desperate fellow humans in the game – a sense of ambivalence and consequence that playing a thousand Call Of Dutys could never give him. And let’s contrast these 18-rated games with a big, friendly 3-rated title, Fifa 15. This is a game about football and contains no sexual content, but it does feature a compulsive trading game called Ultimate Team which, I would argue, has had a much more sinister influence on my son than anything obviously unsuitable, on his sense of value, worth, and sporting spirit. The point of all this being – yes, parents need to take responsibility, but there is no shortcut. We need to do better than hysterical letters or glancing at PEGI ratings. We need to understand the complexities of games as they exist now, and make decisions about what we want our children to experience based on what they’re capable of absorbing and – missing from all these conversations – the people we’d like them to become. |