Saturday, December 15, 2007
Media effects on society and the likes.
I was recently over at my aunt's house hanging out with my eight and ten year old cousins. I turned on the tv and began surfing the channel menus. That's when I saw that HBO had a movie I really wanted to watch. When I tried changing to that channel, it was empty except a small box that said 'Parental control, please enter password.' That got me thinking about how media (tv, movies, videogames) affect us. There have many cases that sued media companies for creating shows or games that created a negative effect on their children. For example, the Doom case. Parents of the students responsible for the Columbine shooting believed that it was because of the Doom videogame that made them so violent. They said that the kids were using the game as a practice run of what they would do the day they brought the guns to school. Or another case, the Seven Dirty Words Case (also known as the Pacifica Case). As a father was driving his son home from school, a comedian revealed curse words on live radio and the father sued for damaging his child. That was when safe harbor was created. Material inappropriate to children could be only played from 10pm- 6am. How do we define what is appropriate or inappropriate? Does parental control help save kids from hearing what they will most likely hear in school? Does the violence on the tv or video screen make them want to do the same things? Could it possibly be also cathartic, by playing violent video game, they don't need to express it in reality? Can media be a positive influence as well, such as showing the poor and making people feel more fotunate?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
The issue of media's (video games, movies, and television shows) is a hot topic to parents. Even music isn't safe from parental control. Now lets see, there are obviously things kids should not be exposed to during their early years (1-10) such as excessive blood and sexualy explicit content, as well as swearing. However, the thing about video games is that a line is clearly drawn on the label of box. And often times, the parents just don't care.
Two years ago I worked at a Target in the electronics department. I was the wallflower behind one of those blue magnetic signs that read "game accesories" as the customers hunted down any red vest they could like we were gazelle grazing on the African grasslands. I saw it all, and once or twice a week I put in my two cents in an warned a parent about the parental warning label on the video game they were purchasing their 7-11 year old kids. Only one mother out of the hundred I had asked during my two years working there didn't take their kid the game. I remember it clearly.
The kid pouted and stomped and said the always entertaining, "awww mom! It's not that bad! I bet he's never played it!" while the mom considered it one last time before whispering to me, "is it that bad?"
The game in question was Resident Evil 4, which I had, in fact, played awhile back. This game i'm embarrased to say gave ME nightmares. Through a tirade of half mutilated zombies, terrifying monsters, and chainsaw yielding lunatics that saw off your head if your not careful I realized there actually ARE games not intended for kids. And this one, my friends, was one of them. Who knows, also, maybe this kid likes that kind of thing and, more likely than not, he's probably played it at a friends house. But should he?
In my opinion, to pin something (and THEN seek to enforce a ban on it)going catastrophically wrong like the columbine incident on just a game is a complete waste of energy. The thing is, a game isn't responsible for a thing like that. The truth is I watched my uncles play Resident Evil and other games that maybe I shouldn't have been watching. Some were damnright scary to a ten year old like me at that time. I have friends who played games like those too, and we never even considered things like that.
The thing is that in order for games to be connected to some horrible act like the Columbine shooting, there must be something already wrong that they would actually act on their ideas. Psychological problems that need to be treated, because all I thought while playing violent games was when i would finish the level and what game i would buy next.
Parents can't really stop children from playing games just like parents can't really stop their kids from having sex. What they have to do is warn them of sex and encourage them to use protection, and in the case of games all they can do is make a judgement call and decide when certain games are ok for their child and make sure they know what their playing IS a game and what they're doing in the game isn't always right.
***
In the case of the mother and the whiny kid I was the one who made the judgement call. The kid peered at me with suspicious eyes around his mothers waiste as she leaned closer to me, waiting for my answer. I decided, you know what? This game is WAY too graphic for this little kid, regardless of what he might think.
"Yeah," I said finally, the boy peering up at me with his small black eyes, "this game is bad. It'll give the kid nightmares. It STILL gives me nightmares."
Then the mother looked down at the little boy with a reproachful look and said sternly, "you're NOT getting this game."
The boy said nothing else, but I saw him a few times after that with his mom, and every time just before he walked out those double doors into the parking lot he looked over his shoulder and gave me the dirtiest little look you could imagine. Made me think half rotting zombies maybe weren't that bad.
I just waved.
Post a Comment