Great topic! I am a father of two boys (8,10). They have inhereted everything I have and so forth. I have trained my kids to understand the ESRB rating system, and have also been told them the difference between cartoons and videogames; and real life. They know that they can play anything that says E. My boys are now wanting to play T and M rated games. Depending on what they are, I let them. I think it will say T or M because of how complicated the game could be (Smash Bros, Swords and Soldiers, Hyrule Warriors, Don't Starve, ect). I don't let them play anything horror or graphically gruesome ( The Evil Within, Dying Light, etc) because they end up having nightmares or get scared and can't sleep at night, or are scared to walk in the dark. I let my oldest play Resident Evil 5 with me just to gauge the threshold; and while he had fun, there were some of those lingering effects. Me and my boys will play local Call of Duty and other like games. If they play online, everyone is muted and I don't let them use a mic either. They have been raised around guns and know to respect them. They also know that the people in the game aren't real. I have explained what could happen if they shoot someone with that many bullets. They understand that gunshot wounds won't go away if they stay still for a few seconds. If there is a lot of cursing, I won't let them play said game. In the end, I am the parent. I feel it's my job to monitor what they do. There's enough negative influence out in the real world. I don't need our hobby to bring any more. Now when he's older, and he buys his own games with his own money, that's on him. Until then, my home my rules type thing. And so far, it's working great. Good luck and enjoy your future gaming partner.

I have two boys (5,8) and they are into sonic, skylanders, and of course MINECRAFT. I play my grown up games on the WiiU when they are in the room and move onto the tv when they are in bed. Gone are the days when I spent hours and hours beating up the bad guys in Morrowind ;(

My 12yo son just finished South Park: The Stick of Truth...... I am a bad bad parent

homerjspartan wrote: »

My 12yo son just finished South Park: The Stick of Truth...... I am a bad bad parent

Or an awesome parent! It was a pretty great game.

But seriously, I can't describe the amount of pride I felt the first time my 7yo daughter stabbed a guy in Black Ops 2 and said "Hello, knife to meet you...."

draznyth wrote: »

homerjspartan wrote: »

My 12yo son just finished South Park: The Stick of Truth...... I am a bad bad parent

haha if he liked it and hasn't played Paper Mario or even Super Mario RPG you should hook him up with one of those too

+100

AlixStark wrote: »

It annoys me so much when I see people buying M rated games for 7-8 year olds, because you know those are the same people who complain about violence/sex in video games.

I let my 7 year old (though he's older now) play M rated games (and I don't complain about sex and violence in games). However, I do that as a gamer that is able to make decisions on what is appropriate for him and what isn't.

Ratings guides are good if you're not familiar with the title, as they let the parent make informed decisions when they otherwise would not be able to, but they don't trump the decision making ability of an informed parent.

RealWill wrote: »

SDo you folks pay attention to the ESRB rating?

Nope.

Do you monitor what types of games you play around your kids and what you let them play?

Monitor, as in pay attention? Yes. If there's an adverse reaction to something, a conversation happens.

If not and you don't mind please say why.

Self regulation is like any other skill - the more you practice it, the better you get.

The time I took my daughter to the game store to pick out HER first set of dice... ***tears***

Seriously, we played all sorts of games with the kids - D&D, Skyrim, MarioCart, Pokemon, etc, etc. Online, handheld, console, PC, tabletop, dice, card ANYTHING.

Now they are aged 17 and 19 and they are creative, adaptive, social and awesome! I think raising kids in the gaming community teaches them important skills like taking turns, reading the fine print (rules/scoring), trying new things and seeing what happens, creativity and story telling, appreciation for other cultures and languages and a strong sense of fairness as the most important quality in social interaction.

When they were little we didn't do things like Mortal Kombat, but they would watch my hubby play Morrowind as if it were a movie. Yes, ESRB ratings matter, but good parenting is the most important. My younger daughter started playing GTA5 at age 16, and she avoids the jerks and "icky" story line and just drives around. In 2015 all this "objectionable" content (sex, violence, language, drugs) is pervasive online anyway (have you been to Reddit or Tumblr?) so guiding them about making good choices through games can help them navigate the other craziness IRL.

Plus, some games (like Fallout and Skyrim) reward/punish the character based on moral choices. If only the real world had a little "Karma" meter over everyone's head!

My daughter is six and I am absolutely aware of what games I play in front of her. I didn't give much thought to it until after my foot surgery. My brother watched her for the first couple days because I was in the hospital doped up. I came back and she excitedly ran up to me saying, "Mommy! I'm helping Uncle Nick kill bad guys!" It doesn't seem all that bad, but suddenly hearing the word "kill" out of my four-year-old's mouth kinda startled me into giving more thought to what games I play around her.

I don't play all that many particularly violent/profane games anyway, so I didn't have to cut off much. I don't play Diablo 3 in front of her because of the "scary monsters" and gore. League of Legends, Minecraft, and Hearthstone are all pretty safe games.