Kid safe website brainwashes parents
HAVE YOU EVER laid awake at night worrying about whether your child might be in severe danger because they caught the end of Terminator at a friend’s house? No neither have we, yet if you have you’d better hurry along to getgamesmart.com.
This delusional little website has been set up by an organisation which is clearly one of those ‘wrap your kids in bubble wrap’ kind of companies and god help any child who’s parents actually visit this site.
At first you may think, well at least it's thinking about our little dears and their “media environment” and about three seconds later you realise that this website is nothing but a marketing scheme dressed up as a social responsibility.
And here's the kicker. Guess who's behind the whole scheme. A quick surf of the site will quickly lead you to the realisation that the whole shebang is heavily centred on use of the Xbox and Windows gaming. That's right... it's all down to Microsoft (although they do list a number of of other 'partners'). Get 'em while they're young folks!
The first thing the website asks you to do is sign a PACT which will outline what your child should do and why. You are then asked to, “Keep it handy in a drawer. Stick it to the fridge or near the TV,” so that you can thrust it in their face if you find them playing when they shouldn’t be.
PACT of course in an acronym of Parental control, Access, Content and Time - just to make it sound a little less like a cult.
Next on the list is to take a family “Pledge” to let the child know about what kind of media content is acceptable, the limit of how long they can play, sort out parental controls and online safety, talk about what images are acceptable on the computer and lastly, play together.
We don’t think it’s just us that find this all a little bizarre, as it really does seem more like joining a sect rather than getting advice on safety measures.
The website goes on, with rules and regulations for every aspect of anything media related. The craziest one we could find was the rules around time, as it suggests in accordance with The American Academy of Pediatrics that children should have no longer than two hours of screen time a day – that’s all kinds of media combined.
If their parents want to read through all the guidelines on getgamesmart.com they will have taken up their entire quota on this one thing - no Corrie for you tonight, Mum.
Although it is clear to see that the inspiration for this website came from a good place, the power seems to have overtaken the creator as a simple idea becomes an absolute insanity.
For example, keeping with the time section, not only does it suggest setting a time limit for the kids it suggests creating an actual “screen time tracker” even giving a link to one to download and then reinforcing this with a kitchen timer next to the Xbox – why not just get a big gong and crash it every ten minutes?
All this may seem strange enough, but the final icing on the cake for the INQ was the vomit inducing pictures and videos of smug happy family scenarios which parents who had found this scheme successful had sent in.
We’ve had to log off the web page now, before we get brainwashed ourselves – but go ahead and try it if you think you’re maleable enough to fall for it. μ
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I know of one who thinks its a great game, and it is, but I don't think it's ok for a 7 year old to play it. Prostitutes, drug dealers and whacking people are something that a child of 7 shouldn't be playing games with, in my opinion.
Do I think he will go out and get himself a crack whore, steal a car and get it painted a different colour, beat some people up on the street with a baseball bat and shoot the police? No, but I'm still not comfortable with him playing that game. I wish there was a PG/12 rated version of GTA. What do you think?
For years gamers have been asking parents to properly vet their childrens game habits, asking why they are playing GTA at 12 when its clearly an 18 and when a site pops up trying to inform the clueless parents, this is a bad thing?
I work at a company of over 100,000 employees and know of no other parent that I work with that is this over the top about media influence. In fact, I think if you are this worried about things (in general) that there is in fact something wrong with you and that you may also be a potential heart attack patient in the near future.
I have a 5 year old and a 15 year old myself and I think they do a pretty god job on thier own policing themselves. I pay attention to what they watch/play and none of it alarms me. The few times my son has seem me play/watch something violent I always ensure that he is aware that games/movies are fantasy and none of it is real. He is in fact more alarmed about things on the news than any fictional movie/game. He has said so himself to me.
in which a fundamentalist Utahian offshoot clothes-on-when-having-incestuous-sex extended family may curtail their Harry-Potter-Like-Wizard broods, uh, some, everywhere, like, and such as, so we will be able to build up our future, for our so forth, as you do.
@ intrested_party,
You should checkout saints row 2, it's far worse :)
If you really want to keep 'young' kids from playing 'bad' games just get them a wii console though, I got one for my parents (strange I know) and there is very few M15+ games and above. I don't think there is a game quite like GTA that is anywhere near under M15+ though.
About the article itself though, 2 hours a day? yeah.. it takes that long for your average 12 year old to go through all his school friends e-mails each day and chat on msn/icq/skype etc. Let alone gaming + watching movies/tv episodes or humor sites.
If you think GTA4 or Manhunt or any FPS are bad, just read that festering pile 'the bible'.
What we get there:
murder
incest
rape (lots and lots of rape)
prostitution
hypocrisy
more incest
sexual abuse
genocide
another genocide
more genocide
torture
another couple of murders
mass murder
genocide
and people FORCE their children to read that. Compared with the bible splatter movies are harmless entertainment.
My kids are 10 and 12, I let them play any computer game they like, they both have at least 4 years experience of Unreal Tournament and are amazingly adept and have good co-ordination, and whats more, they know the difference between right and wrong, and they know its just a game as is GTA.
In my experience, parents who lock their kids away from reality, stop them using a computer and limit their exposure to the real world churn out kids that are unbalanced, nieve and too trusting. Those same kids will then gorge themselves on all the things their parents "shielded" them from and denied them access to the moment they are old enough, and those kids will be the bad ones.
The real world isn't all fluffy dogs, flowers and nice policemen, its corrupt, stinking, violent and dangerous. the kids best able to deal with it will be the ones who aren't suprised to learn that Bambi and snow white aren't real and actually has less basis in reality than GTA IV.
Would I let my kids play GTA IV? I think I would be deceiving them by not letting them play it, and its better they play a game rather than watch it on TV.
Would I let my kids watch violent horror movies or TV programs? No, because it might keep them awake at night and TV action is different to a computer program regardless of how good the graphics are.
Would I let my kids read the Bible? Not unsupervised because it really is full of brainwashing mindwarping stuff that is far more physchologically damaging than GTA IV... at least GTA IV has a basis in reality an fact.