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Parents fear GTA more than porn, booze
Author: Joe MartinPublished: 15th August 2008
According to a recent survey, parents are more worried about children playing GTA than watching porn.
What They Play, which described itself as the parents' guide to videogames, ran two surveys. The first asked parents what they found the most offensive and found that 37 percent of the participants were most offended by a man and woman having sex, 27 percent by two men kissing, 25 percent by a graphically severed head and 9 percent by multiple use of the F-word, F-word.
The second poll asked parents what they are more worried about 17-year olds doing at unsupervised sleepovers. 49 percent were most apprehensive about marijuana being smoked, 19 percent of Grand Theft Auto being whipped out, 16 per cent of pornography being watched, and 14 percent of beer being consumed.
"These poll results demonstrate that parents are as apprehensive about their children's media diets as they are about traditional social issues such as alcohol, drugs, violence and sex," said John Davison, leader of What They Play.
"While researching for Grand Theft Childhood, parents we spoke with in focus groups often bemoaned the fact that they didn't know how to use game controls - and felt unequipped to supervise or limit video gameplay. Of course, parents don't want their children drinking alcohol, but that's a more familiar risk," added Cheryl Olson, co-author of Grand Theft Childhood.
Naturally, we suggest reading our comprehensive review if you're worried about the game.
Are you a parent? What do you think the most worrisome thing is for a child to be involved in? Let us know in the forums.
Comments (43)Stats: 0.264 seconds
37% of parents surveyed found "a man and a woman having sex" to be the most offensive thing? How, pray tell, did they become parents?!
Only because they don't get any anymore.
Turkey baster? :-)
Of course, like most surveys, you can never rely on the sample being an accurate cross-section of the target. The statistics can and often are bent depending on the point the proponent wishes to argue.
Although, having said that, with such an alledgedly high percentage of parents finding consensual heterosexual intercourse so offensive, is it a wonder that the UK has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in the European Union? Perhaps parents are once again in need of a good wake-up slap.
This literally made me guffaw, 17 year olds?!!!111!!
If a 17 year old is only just going to "unsupervised sleepovers" i'd suggest there is something seriously wrong at home, and if at that sleepover they rented ooohhh say Saw they would see far more gore than the whole of GTA.
Debauchery and sin is exactly what being 16 - 22 is all about, and lots of kids these days start much sooner than that.
WTF? At that point my mum was actually handing me the beer for my parties
Obviously this is a poll of 3000 prudes.
Must be all that rape and murdering of mythical Greek gods that propels it to this level of fear.
Edit: Todays poll is quite interesting, apparently parents are more likely to let their children play as Master Chief with all the gore associated with the series than play as sonic, probably one of the most family friendly characters ever conceived.
I certainly did :p
17 year olds must count as-just-out-of-diapers then.
Sure you can drive over somebody in a car but you cant buy a can of beer till you're 21!
I know it has been asked before... but how did they become parents if they find that offensive?
anyway, It's weird that they are worried that much about games, I mean games are a virtual thing, while booze, knife's (or whatever the daily mail is currently hunting down) are real things.
maybe the parents should actually have to play games before they are even allowed to comment on them. but then that woudnt work due to this:
So I thought: "What idiot goes to school armed?"
Then I read that the mentioned arms included pocketknifes (as I had for the boy scouts)...so they meant me.
...Duh!
Just like my brothers.
To be honest I think it's worrying that parents are more concerned about their kids playing a video game than getting drunk
Then it really doesn't matter what their kids con them into buying, the console won't let it play without a PIN code.
As usual with any survey a few questions need to be asked. What was the survey sample, how big was it, was it representative of the general population...? etc.
As to the website itself, actually I'm quite impressed, a website that gives a short synopsis of each game and a short bit about the content without descending into screaming "think of the children." The comments are silly, and most likely written by gamers with no idea of what raising a child is like.
Ultimately the decision lies with the parents as to what their children play of course.
You don't have to be tech savvy to buy a PS3/360 and set it up. They probably got nagged by their kids into getting one, then just handed it over.
GTA is the last thing on there mind
While the results can be "bent", the real issue is the incredibly small sample size for the survey. It's really too small to have any significance as is usually the case.
And here's the point that they don't bother to cover. There's millions of people who have played the Grand Theft Auto games, and we didn't become psychopaths, gangsters, addicts, and alcoholics. It's the same logic that says it you think about drinking you're an alcoholic and if you're curious about drugs you must want to be a dealer.
What all these people who hold surveys need to start to learn that 95% of people can leave things in the game. Those who do attack people etc is usually brought on through the way they were brought up before they could build an interest into gaming and the area their in which even at times the person is independent enough to make their own choices. Rather than considering young adults/teens and kids as lab rats/pets they'd figure out they'd get a hell of a lot more co-operation and good attitudes if they treated them like an adult. Not below or what ever. Fair enough parents want to be protective, and these people try and put games down. The only issues I can see is the arsey 12 year olds that manage to get onto forums and act like a smart ass (mainly on consols) inwhich if you saw them in real life they'd crap their pants and run, not exactly the killing/drug abusing type. lol.
Who the hell did they survey?!?!? It completely baffles me that people would be offended by THAT WHICH CREATES LIFE!! What religious people would call THE MIRACLE OF LIFE, yet the ACT that creates it is "offensive." Sometimes I wonder how this species has survived so long.
Not to mention that people are more offended by men kissing than decapitation and the F-word. That tells me there is a serious delinquency of judgement going on here - apparently love is offensive.
First off, these are parents severely lacking in life experience - they are completely ill-informed about EVERYTHING covered by this survey. I would not want any of these people for parents. They would do an absolutely horrible job.
This last part is perhaps the most revealing and disturbing to me:
Translation: "Parents are too lazy/don't care enough to read the manual, call tech support, or research the problem. Parents want someone to hold their hand through the process, or they just want it to be done for them - too lazy or stupid to do it or figure it out for themselves. Parents also seem to forget that they are PARENTS and use their ignorance as a scapegoat so they don't actually have to do anything." Once again, these parents are obviously ill-equipped to raise children and would probably do a better just f'ing up their children then raising them to be intelligent and productive.
Makes me sad that so many people are so horribly misguided and too ignorant to realize or care.
Well, I don't think they mind DOING it, they just dont want their kids to see it.... :D
I'm a well educated, darwinistic kind of guy, but I do not stem from bonking parents! :D
Must've been an immaculate conception...somehow...genesplicing...spontaneaus cellmerger...earthwormstyle...whatdoIknow
Anyway I never caught them and I'm happy for it!
And if I think back about how pr0n ruined my young soul *shiver* look how I turned out, spending my time on lowlife forums such as this one.
What was th topic again?
Xir