You Don't Say: Kids Like M-Rated Games

[News Reader]

You Don't Say: Kids Like M-Rated Games
In what comes as a surprise to no one, a study has established that kids really like M-rated games. The Journal of Adolescent Health has just published a study conducted by a team from the Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital and Michigan State University that "surveyed a total of 1254 students, aged 12-14, from Pennsylvania and South Carolina in 2004." And the surveyed teens responded in convincing numbers that they quite rather like M-rated games, and they also play games because 'there's nothing else to do.'

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the results showed that most boys, and many girls, played games that the ESRB had rated M, signifying that they were for mature audiences only. Of the games played by the boys, Grand Theft Auto and Halo were both in the top three, and GTA was also the 2nd most played game by girls, according to the data. Over half of all boys agreed with the statement "I play electronic games because I like guns and weapons." On the other hand, over 60 percent of boys and girls agreed with the statement "I play electronic games because there's nothing else to do."

I would hope that the actual article has some slightly more useful and/or startling conclusions than these, but I haven't had a chance to read it yet.

New survey shows that kids like games rated M for mature [Ars Technica via GamePolitics]




Author: Maggie Greene
Category: esrb ratings Study you don't say
Publish Date: Sat, 07 Jul 2007 16:00:25 EDT
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Source: Kotaku

[Dog Pants]

Well that was research money well spent. Kids have been complaining that there's nothing to do since time began, and modern kids consider themselves to be adults when they're 12 years old. This comes down to responsible parenting, yet again.

Seems to me like many irresponsible parents like being able to say 'look how mature my child is' because they let their 13 year old daughter wear a push-up bra and a mini skirt, or they give them a quad bike, or they buy them M rated games. Then they blame magazines and MTV when their 13 year old daughter is having sex with a 17 year old, or the government when their 8 year old is hit by a car riding their quad bike the wrong way down a dual carriageway, or blaming games when their kids stab each other with knives their parents let them have.