Parents Fear Video Games More than Porn, Alcohol

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You have to really wonder what the hell is going on when parents fear video games more than porn and alcohol. At least the news story ended with at least one person talking sense but you still have to wonder what the parents taking this poll were thinking.

Conducted by What They Play, a parent's guide to video games, nearly 3,000 respondents in two separate polls concluded that drinking beer and watching pornography were less objectionable activities for children than playing certain video games.
 
Typical idiots.

They drew up with pron and alcohol so it's normal and fine.

Didn't have video games so they much be evil.

They're simply modern fucking Luddites.
 
I imagine we'd see a completely different result if [H] members were given the same poll.
 
Seems perfectly reasonable to me. Let's look at what a typical parent's experiences are like:

Have they gotten drunk? Yes
Did they ever have a drink before they were 18? Yes.
Have they see porn in one form or another? Yes

Did they play Grand Theft Auto when they were 14? No.

And before anyone says it's rated M17, it doesn't matter. They don't care if their kids see R Rated movies in many (most?) cases.

We all have one thing in common. We fear what we don't understand.
 
Yeah, who did they poll?

Go to downtown Redmond or San Jose and do it over and see what happens.

Of course, if it was a random sample of the populating in significant numbers it just shows what we already know: the population is made of ignorant newbs who believe whatever the press tells them to. And the press tells them that video games turn kids into killers.
 
*sarcasm alert*

I can see it now...

Hundreds of teens across the nation turning in their consoles to their parents for brewskies and porn... that they will take to their friends house so they can booze up while checking out Aimee from Tucson to the dulcet tones of car jacking victims in surround sound.

Because come on, how are parents going to tell their kids they can't go to Timmy's house. What would the other parents think of them. They can't even tell them no in the grocery store for fear of being considered at best un-hip, or at worst abusive. I mean, get serious here.

*sarcasm off*

My parents sucked at all this too, I was just lucky enough to realize it was gonna be no fun in life to be a douchebag.
 
You have to really wonder what the hell is going on when parents fear video games more than porn and alcohol. At least the news story ended with at least one person talking sense but you still have to wonder what the parents taking this poll were thinking.

a problem with this survey:

"Conducted by What They Play, a parent's guide to video games, nearly 3,000 respondents in two separate polls"

According to the website, "What They Play - The parents guide to video games", this seems to be directed toward parents. Rating its biased nonsense, on the scale from National Geographic to O Oprah Magazine, Its pushing beyond O - Oprah, and into Fox News. To make this short, Im going to assume that many of these 3,000 respondants are heavily biased toward the "oh lawd, anything but video games! Please think of the children!".
 
Parents fear marijuana over alcohol??? Really???

Yet many would give their kids prescription amphetamines?

Definitely something wrong.
 
If this measn they are keeping their hands off my porn and beer........I may be all for this new fear.


Parents fear marijuana over alcohol??? Really???

Yet many would give their kids prescription amphetamines?

Definitely something wrong.

And can anyone point out the differences between a drug being administered by a licensed physician and kids buying weed of their neighborhood drug dealer then waking and baking with their firends?


Marijuana "enthusaists" never quite seem to be able to wrap their brain around that point. I wonder why.


Not that I actually think all the kids that get Ritalin need it (most probably need just a good swift ass kicking from some parents who are doing their job not pawning off the duty).
 
I made a poll in my house and we came to the conclusion that these parents are stupid and we need more video games with porn and alcohol.
 
:eek: Unbelievable, those parents shouldn't be allowed outdoors without a supervisor.
 
My parents are old enough to not have experienced video games in their youth. My parents are also very conservative.

They also have the good sense to realize that a video game equates to the same thing as books, comic books, television shows, or a movie. Its all entertainment, and its all NOT REAL. In the alternate realities present in these mediums, the only rules of that reality are made by the creator/author of such medium.

When I got my first Nintendo, my parents didn't think I would go out and eat every brightly colored mushroom I could find just like Mario.

I believe that if you can't distinguish fantasy from reality, your either on a lower intelligence level, or your high.
 
Every day things like this erode my faith in humanity being able to not be viewed as collectively stupid.
 
my life would be better with out video games... Though I would probably drink more and jerk off to porn more.
 
It comes down to this:

We don't have a drug we can put our kids on to keep them from playing video games, so it must be evil.

If I didn't have video games, I actually think I could have turned out a helluva lot worse than just being anti-social in public. Even then, I'm anti-social because, growing up, I wasn't allowed to have friends over or go to friends' houses, or you know, be a fucking kid. So video games it was, as an escape from homework, chores, and being annoyed by typical things that annoy kids that parents do.

The way I see it, you can't have everything. Something's gotta give. You either let your kid have a social life or you watch them try and make one online on Xbox Live or other games they play, or even through the dreaded Myspace.
 
You have to really wonder what the hell is going on when parents fear video games more than porn and alcohol. At least the news story ended with at least one person talking sense but you still have to wonder what the parents taking this poll were thinking.

I'm a parent, and I'm indoctrinating my kids with the awesomeness of games. My 18 month old swings his toy trucks around when I'm playing wiisports with my daughter. I'll shed a tear of joy when we're cooping gears of war 2 together.
 
So wait...are they basically saying that GTA4 is worse than midget clown pr0n? :confused:
 
wow that headline is complete bullshit
there were 4 choices
the parents that probably would have chosen beer, choose marijuana instead
and the porn is almost understandable
 
The problem with this survey isn't the parents, it's the survey.

First of all, they already villainized video games in the first survey with their leading questions. When asked what types of video games that are feared most, they were led to hypothetical games that didn't exist (besides the 9% that feared the F word being used). They basically told parents that graphic, homosexual sex and visibly severed heads were a mainstream in the gaming industry. That's complete BS.

The second test was also flawed. Since they used Grand Theft Auto, they automatically introduced a negative preconception without demonstrating the actual content. ...and if parents weren't familiar with the game, how did they summarize it? You might as well ask a KKK member how they feel about civil rights and race relations.
 
Not this parent. If they are in their rooms playing video games, they are not out getting pregnant or getting someone pregnant. They are also not getting shit faced and wrecking the family car, getting high and having a train pulled on them, getting a STD, getting arrested for possession, getting a DUI or any number of other things.

We had Atari and Sega when I was a kid. My mother prolly wished at the time that I was at home playing them rather than what I was actually out there doing. Lived in a small town, not much to do besides fight, fuck, and drink in no particular order.
 
I'm a parent, and I'm indoctrinating my kids with the awesomeness of games. My 18 month old swings his toy trucks around when I'm playing wiisports with my daughter. I'll shed a tear of joy when we're cooping gears of war 2 together.

A true parent if there ever were one. :')
 
I agree with Nemesis... these people grew up with beer and porn, but they are ignorant of computer games. It's just "Human Nature" to fear what you don't understand. Plus some games do have violent content, the effects of which are frequently blown way out of proportion by the media when they need a convenient scapegoat.
 
When are people going to say enough is enough,and tell these would be "thought police" that they've had it with drek like this? It's nothing but sensationalized propaganda,meant to force the views of puritanical idiots on us.If the parents who responded to this "survey" couldn't see they were being manipulated to give the answers the poll takers wanted,I question if they have enough intelligence to raise children.
 
I fear Apple funboi's more then pr0n,alcohol and video games combined
 
We live in such a narrow minded country now.

To be fair to the 304,864,753 people that didn't take this poll, I don't think 3,000 people should speak for everyone.

I have a hard time believing that the average person wouldn't at least want to have more facts before flatly saying "video games are worse than porn and alcohol."
 
I would be more concerned about MMOs than games like GTA. Games like GTA while can be addictive isn't as much of a black hole and far less addictive. MMOs often capitalize on people who want to escape the harsh reality they are in and when people spend 24/7 in the game it become a problem. There are lots of cases of this in Asia due to pressure to do well in school.
 
It's almost time for me to be a parent and I'm a avid gamer. The only thing I fear is my child getting shot in the street from drug dealers or poor criminals who can't afford to play video games... Put more cops on the street and less regulation on entertainment.
 
Hmmm which would I rather have my kids doing...jacking off to porn for a couple of hours every day in the room, drinking booze for a couple of hours every day in the room, or playing a video game for a couple hours every day in the room that will actually enhance some of his brain thought processes and reaction speed?

Oh I don't know it's such a tough choice:S
 
so where are these awesome parents that by their kids booze and porn for christmas?
 
The problem with this survey isn't the parents, it's the survey.

First of all, they already villainized video games in the first survey with their leading questions. When asked what types of video games that are feared most, they were led to hypothetical games that didn't exist (besides the 9% that feared the F word being used). They basically told parents that graphic, homosexual sex and visibly severed heads were a mainstream in the gaming industry. That's complete BS.

The second test was also flawed. Since they used Grand Theft Auto, they automatically introduced a negative preconception without demonstrating the actual content. ...and if parents weren't familiar with the game, how did they summarize it? You might as well ask a KKK member how they feel about civil rights and race relations.

QFT. I don't think I've ever seen a survey involving video games that wasn't obviously biased.
 
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