Yup, when my kid gets old enough I won't allow those kind of games. I like games that he would be able to enjoy to so instead of him liking what I like I will include myself with his games. 17 years old is a little extreme for these games in my opinion but preteens definatly don't need these games. I will probably start allowing them at like 14 or so. I don't want my kid being the shrill voice swearing at all the people playing online pissing everyone off and getting derogatory terms being thrown at him

Halo is a FPS and is simulating war situations that you have to shoot and murder other beings to proceed in the game. However, that is the least of my concern with kids playing. Its the online that they should have nothing to do with. Also, both Halo and Duke Nukem have the same rating. I would obviously approve of Halo more but I won't be able to know everything in every game so I would need to base my decision off of the rating system

As someone who ran a video rental store for four years, I find this as amusing as hell. If that many parents objected to violent video-games then this wouldn't even be an issue. Instead, the amount of parents who have put a game back after I described the content is a tiny, tiny fraction of the total. Not only were most parents uninterested, a good number of them were borderline offended that I said anything at all. I especially tried to do sway parents away from GTA titles, but it usually had no effect. As it turns out, kids love GTA; it's one of those games that they all want to play because they have some idea that they aren't supposed to play it.

I can say with complete honesty that I had more parents worried about "witchcraft" movies like Harry Potter than about violent games or films. That's the culture in many places in America, only no one is worried about changing it until something bad happens, then they forget about it, or wait for someone else to do something.

Truthfully, I don't even believe playing violent video-games would have an effect on a healthy kid. It's only when they play for hours and hours that I would worry, and that in itself should indicate that the parents aren't doing their job. A couple of hours of Halo a day isn't going to twist anyone who isn't already twisted.

As my mom pointed out, she grew up watching westerns and pretty much everyone in her generation played "good guys vs. bad guys" and had pretend shoot-outs all the time. Video-games aren't really that much different.

I think like any material. Videogames, movies, music, the extreme violence/sex/themes in school can affect the young mind negatively. Not every young person, but some. People are partially a product of their environment whether it's to rebel, or conform in some way.

However when the child is this young it's the parents job to guide them along the way. I wouldn't let my 8 year old (I don't have kids) play hitman, or grand theft auto, listen to marilyn manson, NWA etc.

Now there are certain years probably 10, 11, 13 or something, where it becomes more ambiguous. But in the end it's the parents job. And singling out videogames is ridiculous.

Those 89% of parents are in denial that bad parenting has a huge roll in violence.

They all can suck a huge STICK!!. Raise your damn child properly and he wont grow up to be a maniac.

I think video game violence as well as movie and TV violence is a problem... for children. Kids shouldn't play stuff unless it's made for kids.

If you not 17 or older then you shouldn't play Mature rated games without your parents permission. Parents that don't pay attention to their kids should be publicly wiped.

There are plenty of great games for you if you are under age. You don't have any kind of fundamental right to play games like Gears of War or God of War until you turn 18. Kid's do not have the same rights as adults, that is a fact, deal with it. When I was a kid my parents were careful about what I could watch and play. I never felt like I was missing out on anything.

Children should have childhoods and don't need to learn about death and war any earlier than they have to. Children deserve innocence and parents who don't read labels have no right to complain. Some games are for adults and some games are for kids. Take the 3 seconds it takes to read the label and do the right thing instead of complaining that GTA made you kid act out at school. You shouldn't have let your kid play the damn game in the first place. Just because it's a video game doesn't mean it's for kids.

Well i'll put it this way, while both stupid, there is actually a stronger research between violent videogames and violent crimes then gun ownership.  If you had to get rid of one by the numbers... it'd be video game.

It's still off because it doesn't adress correlation or causation... but at least it's still there.  (People who want to shoot people like to play games about shooting people?  Who would of thought!.  It's like sports fans who like sports want to play games about sports.)

Also... i mean think about it this way.  Would you give the most violent videogame that you can think of to a 5 year old?   If not... I think that alone would qualify violent games as a "problem" for some parents, since no doubt there are other parents out there who suck.

halo isnt as bad as God of war. my uncle bought it for my cousins (about 10 years old or something) i mean shooting people is nothing compared to fucking a number of women. cutting someone in half and ripping the eye out of a huge monster with your bare hands

I grew up watching Tom and Jerry, and Popeye the sailor man. Nobody said or did anything about the violence in those cartoons so I call BS. In my opinion its the parents fault, they're to blame for raising their kids poorly.