I can guarantee this. Gamestop was my first job coming out of highschool and I experience two Christmas seasons. Most parents have no clue about master accounts or settings on a videogame console, even though today a console is a full-fledged media center.

The console restrictions are a pain in the butt. For example I decide as a parent my child can play online in a multiplayer game, if their account isnt above a certain age it wont let them. I've had instances where they have been old enough to play the game but cannot play online on the same game.

What ends up happening (especially as you cannot change the age on the profile), you set the kids up as 18, just because they cannot play the correct age games online.

That's what happened in my case, but my kids are good :) they ask me first if a game they want to play is suitable for them :) - but i am sure not all are. If Sony/MS made this more straightforward rather than a pain, then it wouldnt be so bad.

So it's totally normal for you that a 11 year old can walk into a stripbar, murder whores etc..... damn, you are naive.

When I was working at Gamestop kids really thought their parents were stupid about games like GTA. I mean it showed a clear lack of respect, not because they didn't love their parents but rather the same high that comes with 'getting away with murder'. Some of the mothers just wanted to see their children smile and then there were what we called the 'super parents' who would buy their kids whatever they wanted but asked about the age ratings and wouldn't let their kids touch what they didnt have. Funny enough a lot of the parents who were the most stern were either strapped for cash or had too much of it. My parents had me wired to respect them, mentally speaking. I walked into a Gamestop and EB and asked for mature games was told no (and they didnt even bring adults into the picture) and proceeded to go back to the games with the ratings I was used to. I've even seen kids try to get strangers to come into the store with them and buy GTA and COD for them. We all want the things we know we shouldn't have.

 Mortal Kombat 2   is considered very violent even today. Heck, I think MK2 is more violent than games like Halo and Call of Duty.

So true. Even then worst case scenario the kids know how to cut off the settings, but I heard that now they have password kind of like the cable box so children couldn't watch porn when I was younger. If your kids respect your gamer opinion as well as your parenting opinion you have a winner. I wont keep my kids away from all of the cool games, just the ones they definitely shouldn't be touching. If they want those, sorry I don't care if I am not the "cool parent" any longer. I still remember those days and parents who let us get away with murder were always the cool parents.

I played the censored versions which were on the Nintendo console at a friends house. My parents wouldn't let me even play them, so I played them at a friends house. Halo is fantasy violence, COD is an exaggeration of realistic situations. Remember that little mission in COD MW2 where the player had to play as the terrorist and shoot all of the people in the airport? LOL Kids salivated for shit like this even though the media blew up over it.

           In my honest opinion, I don't remember a single moment from CoD history that I would consider "ultra violent" or "ultra gory". I really don't. On the other hand we have games like MadWorld which are all about gory violence.

Yep and look how much marketing and fanfare that had on a Nintendo console, hence why I am buying my kids Nintendo consoles first. As i said Nintendo was always the safe console and even the version of MK was bloodless on the SNES when I was younger compared to the cool blood filled Sega version. Nintendo is run by a bunch of old traditional men who know the ages of their target demographic. Sure they managed to get COD on the Wii and Wii U, but how many people bought these games on the Nintendo console? Anyway, in COD MW2 there was a mission where you played as a terrorist and massacred people in an airport and there was a disclaimer before you played it as a warning, allowing you to skip it or play along. Even activision admitted it was disturbing content.

The infamous COD MW2 scene: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaI2FRKSXwc

Now go and look up the Colombine shootings and tell me the difference. 

I was playing GTA when i was 8. I never freaked out, or had violent behavior.

There are a lot of wrong things with France, but this isn't one.