Famine said:
Bodhesatva said:
Why do people have no problem when consumers try to circumvent the rules (prohibiting minors from playing Mature rated games without expressed consent from guardians), but you get angry when Best Buy tries to stop people from circumventing the rule? I see a lot of discussion about whether this is legal or not, and I think it's irrelevant; the point is that Best Buy had clear and logical evidence (whether that evidence led to correct conclusions or not is irrelevant) that these people were trying to get around the rules, and they stopped it. That is good. They are enforcing the rules! Yay! Why aren't we celebrating? Why aren't we saying: "thank goodness, a store is getting tough about enforcing the age-of-use rules for games?" This really bothers me, personally, as there doesn't seem to be any way for the law to win this. We complain when parents aren't educated consumers, but then when we put a system in place that is specifically intended to help protect children and educate parents about content, we complain when that system is actually enforced. Which is it? Do we want to complain that the parents don't know enough, or do we want to complain that a system is being put in place to help them safeguard their children and inform them about what their children are doing? You can't have it both ways. |
Celebrating what to be exact? You know, we have these laws that say kids under 17 can't get into a rated-R movie, or they can't buy an M-rated game, yet there is always that other loophole, movie rental stores. To me the "uneducated parent" is the parent who tries to circumvent their kids' lives, thinking they are accomplishing something when in fact they don't have 24/7 surveillance on the kid, and that very same child could be watching something on cable, the internet, or at a friend's house. I'm against these video game laws; I have extreme prejudice towards them. And no Bod, refusing to sell to people of legal age because the cashier thinks they will give it to a minor may be fine in a few states, but I know that's not the case everywhere, especially here. |
Question: what, precisely, do you think we should do to stop kids from playing these games? Because you are correct that children cannot possibly be watched by even vigilant parents 24/7, let alone parents who are lower class who may be working 40+ hours a week each.
I'm all for listening to other options, because I don't love the solution either.
