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Editorials and Features

Censorship or Parenting?   Article by: MrCHUPON

Opinion: Censorship or Parenting? [Written 2006-06-26]

If you choose to withhold the sweet nectar that is the M-rated game, are you then complicit in censorship? Or are you merely looking out for the child's best interest? At what point does the parent become an agent of Chairman Mao's "cultural revolution"? I can't really speak for those of you ladies and gents who live outside of North America, but here we live in a society where Jack Thompson is allowed to run rampant and spew alarmist, ignorant, frothy giblets that slander any form of controversial and somewhat lewd media. (Back in the day, you may remember him rallying against the likes of rap group 2 Live Crew for the members' sexually explicit lyrics.) We live in a society where the House of Representatives seems to see fit to regulate videogames, because we all know how knowledgeable House members are about videogames. (Why, they even play Pong and Civilization 4!) Proposed bills are signed (which are thankfully rejected when they finally reach court) which fine the buyers and/or sellers for transactions involving "under-age" game-buying. Videogames are being treated like contraband by the government - little 13-year-old Sue can put "The Hills Have Eyes" on the Best Buy countertop and have a better chance of walkng out of the store with that than she could - say - SCEA's "God of War" for the PS2. Or how about this - ever heard of paying a fine for buying the unrated version of the movies "Old School" or "The Girl Next Door"? Imagine having to pay such a fine for the next "Grand Theft Auto" title. This inevitably stems from and leads right back to parenting. Stuffy parents who don't know how to do their jobs rally for the government to do it for them. Because they're content to leave the kid in front of the tube, they can go about their merry way. Instead of sitting down and engaging in a friendly game of Tetris with young Rod and Todd, father and mother leave the kiddies content to their own devices. When mother and father find Rod shooting down a helicopter and Todd inviting a seedy lady into his sedan for - ahem - life replenishment, the alarm goes off. Hillary, do something! Newsflash mom and dad: You see that Talib Kweli CD? Tipper's sticker on the front says "Parental Advisory" - not "Uncle Sam's Advisory." So it's time to tighten your belt and get to work with your parenting. But how do you do it? How do you trust your child with the content he's about to endure? Do you not trust him or her? Do you raise him or her with the intent of speaking about that mystical fruit, that holy grail of gaming, that can only be accessed "when you come of age"? Or do you follow Fitty's advice, sit down with little Forsythe and teach him what Bulletproof is trying to tell kids? (Hint: it's trying to tell kids that the G-Unit is the clique that he's wit', and ain't no betta way to make ya paper than to murk a [CENSOR BYPASS FANDANGO] with the chrome and metal tip. Nice life lesson, that one. No no, don't earn a degree and get a job - you should be clappin' that nine, just don't get caught.) If you choose to withhold the sweet nectar that is the M-rated game, are you then complicit in censorship? Or are you merely looking out for the child's best interest? Certainly there are merits to blocking content deemed inappropriate - but at what point does that make you as a parent no better than Hillary Clinton? Jack Thompson? Joseph Lieberman? At what point does the parent become an agent of Chairman Mao's "cultural revolution"? Can we even consider this extreme - or is it all in the name of good parenting? I'll tell you my side of the story right now. I'm going to teach my child - from the very moment s/he can understand the words that are coming out of my mouth - the difference between fact and fiction, the line between fantasy and reality, and how to apply this to our lives, the real world, and just plain fun. There's no way I'll introduce my child to Grand Theft Auto before s/he's in his teens - my personal copy will be locked up in a box for my own use. But should s/he stumble across it, I'll sit down with the young buck and play along - re-explaining fact versus fiction and all of that jazz while we're playing. I'm not about to expose my child head-on, but I'll be damned if I'm going to let a locked box do the parenting for me. What about you?

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