Comment from David and Pam
Time: March 18, 2008, 7:12 am

The phone lines were burning with your calls on this video game ruling this morning….please share your viewpoints here with us. Have a blessed day.

Comment from Lori
Time: March 18, 2008, 7:14 am

I completely agree that the federal court’s ruling is just awful. What’s to stop them from overruling the rating system then?? What I question is this….. If sin starts in our thoughts … And Jesus taught that even if we look at a woman in lust we are committing adultry … then is God looking at the “thoughts” of stealing and criminal acts in these games as being guilty of blatantly breaking his commandments? (Does that make sense??)

My daily devotion from Adrian Rogers today is Proverbs 22:6 — “Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” There it is — in God’s glorious word!!

Thanks!! Very interesting to hear everyone’s take on this ruling.

Comment from Craig McCourt
Time: March 18, 2008, 7:36 am

While I agree that it is too bad that this ruling came down. Te bad news is that we need a rule – a law to protect our youth. As a youth director and speaker for more than 20 years – I must say it is harder being a youth today than any previous generation in recent history.

The greatest issue I see today is america’s greatest shortage – even in a land of plenty – we are suffering from a shortage of PARENTS. Some adults with children refuse to take on the role of parent and offer that role up to the schools, the courts, and anyone else willing to take a stab at it.

Character education, value development, sharing the Wisdom of God and passing it on to this next generation is the role of the parent. What we need is parents to link arms and unite in a healthy proactive, and reactive role in the lives of our youth. We need to help students connect Sunday morning with Tuesday afternoon.

< Craig McCourt
http://www.godponders.org

Comment from Dustin
Time: March 18, 2008, 7:43 am

I am an adult who plays a lot of video games and many of the video games that I play are the “violent” war related games such as Call of Duty, Halo, or Rainbow Six. They can definitly influence you.

I do think that this ruling is not right. They should have more restrictions on what games a person can rent. Just how a kid can’t (or shouldn’t be able to) rent a movie rated “R” they should not be able to rent a game that is rated “M” or “AO”.

However, I also want to stress the importance of the parents role here. I believe it is the parent’s role to monitor what the individual is playing/watching and how much they are doing this. I don’t know much about the Playstation, but the Xbox 360 has Child accounts and Parent accounts. These youth/teens should be setup with Child accounts and then the Parent can limit how much time the child can play along with what types of games based on rating that they can play. Learning about the gaming console, computer, TV, Cable/Satellite is very important for parents to do. Almost all of them will have some sort of parental control that can restrict certain content from being played without entering a password.

For those interested, here is a link to the ESRB Ratings Guide: http://www.esrb.org/ratings/ratings_guide.jsp.
Note that you can also search through their games to find a game that your kid might be playing along with the descriptors for that game that explain what sort of content the game includes.

Comment from Don
Time: March 18, 2008, 7:58 am

I support the Federal court’s ruling. As a parent of 4 young children it is MY responsiblity to teach these children the right path. It is MY responisbilty to know what games they are playing or what they are doing on a computer online. And it is MY responsibility given to me by God as a parent to start them on the path of the Lord.

I play video games with my son and daughters. And I stress the Play with parts. There is not a video game in the house that I haven’t personally screened and talked with the kids about. If my kids as about a game they seen and advertisement about I explain to them why it would be a bad choice or why it is acceptable.

Proverbs 22:6 is very relavent now. As Parents we are given great responsiblity to raise our children and to teach them the ways of the Lord. We can not rely on laws to do that job for us.

Comment from Dan Weber
Time: March 18, 2008, 8:24 am

Pam and Dave,

Our family owns the Nintendo Wii system for some fun activities. The Wii has a parental lock so you have to enter a code to use a game above your choice of rating.

As consumers, we can dommand this so no game will ever enter our child’s mind wherever one takes the system. We just have to take responsibility as parents to know the friends ou kids keep.

Also: I was a simple and innocent child until I entered Fred Moore Junior High in Anoka many years ago. I was so shocked by what I was faced with there, and I could hardly image myself choosing God if I had that atmosphere at home in my Atari games.

Truly concerned
Dan

Comment from Mike
Time: March 18, 2008, 9:15 am

Don…you are not an island!!! I agree with your statement. On one hand we fight for freedom of religion and expression and free speech but yet we welcome legislation that removes a fundamental parental responsibility. Don’t legislate kids, educate kids and parent your kids.

Comment from Ann
Time: March 18, 2008, 10:25 am

I believe that we need to have restrictions on the kind of video games our children can rent. I also believe it is my responsibility to teach my children. But to those of you who are standing behind the courts ruling I ask you this….what about the single mom, who is working 2 jobs and can’t be there 100% of the time to monitor her children? What about your child’s friends house that they go play at who’s parents aren’t quite as vigilent as you are? Do not think that your child is immune to the peer pressure if all the other kids want to play the game. What about the other 20 kids in your childs school classroom that have all been exposed to the violent games and are now acting out in class or on the playground?
What are we really talking about? Putting some common sense restriction on the purchase and rental of violent video games. Let the “freedom of speech” fight go and pick up the common sense, do what’s right fight.
I am a sinner who is not always able to make the perfect decision. Why do you think your children can always make the perfect decision?

Comment from Tom
Time: March 18, 2008, 10:57 am

Dave & Pam,
I tried unsuccessfully to call in this morning about the video game ruling.
I think it is a horrible decision.
My wife’s family were the victims of a violent crime in Oct. 2005. (The murder of Pete & Patti Niedere in Hastings by their 17 year old son.) Patti is my wife’s sister.
While it was not the direct result of video game violence, our eyes were opened up to many things about teen violence. One of the major items was the research that has been done through MRI imaging on the development of the brains of teens to early 20’s people. The Dakota county attorney James Backstrom has been involved in national studies of this subject and they have determined that these age people ( predominantly males) brain area which helps in the reasoning of right and wrong and the consequences of making wrong decisions is not fully developed until the mid 20’s.
So the impact of playing out violent acts in these violent video games has an impact on these kids because they don’t associate any consequences when they actually carry out violent acts in real live situations.
An old computer saying is appropriate here- garbage in, garbage out.
Thanks for all you do to keep us informed on current issues like this.
KTIS has been such a healing balm for my wife and I through the music and message put forth over your airwaves. You all brought us joy and were able to make us laugh when laughter was nearly impossible because of our heavy hearts.
Thanks again and keep up the good work!!!!

Tom

Comment from E
Time: March 18, 2008, 10:58 am

One thing you may not realize, the library has been the loophole in this for a long time. While they don’t have much in video games, my kids were only around 12 the first time they came home from the neighborhood library with movies that I wouldn’t allow near my VCR. (We are talking rated R and beyond, pictures and titles intrigued young boys and they foolishly thought they could sneak them by me)
They are now 19&20. Kids have been finding ways around the rules for a long time, we shouldn’t really be looking for the government to take care of our kids anyway, that’s a parent’s job – and Pam is absolutely correct, they aren’t parents when they allow such things.

Comment from Don
Time: March 18, 2008, 11:32 am

We can not be there 100% of the time for our kids. Any parent who says they can is only fooling themselves and doing an injustice to their kids. We can only teach our kids God’s way. We can only teach our kids how to choose good friends and right from wrong. It is up to the kids to choose to follow the path set before them.

As parents we can establish our rules for our kids to follow and lay out the consequences in case the rules are not followed. But all the rules are not going to make our kids do what is right. It is the parents example, the parents developing a conscience in the kids from a very young age that will encourage our children to make the right choices.

I am not against laws like these because of free speech issues, I am against laws like these because they try to legislate things that are better left to the parents.

Comment from Jessica
Time: March 18, 2008, 6:36 pm

I just don’t get it. I’m not a parent, actually I’m only 18, but it makes no sense to me that adult rated videogames should be open to children. It should be up to the parents to decide what their kids can play for videogames, just as R-rated movies require parental consent. Minnesota seems to be going downhill with a lot of decisions lately. First the gas tax, now they’re trying to get rid of short term credit/payday loans, and now they’re taking the decision of what children can play for videogames out of the parents’ hands.

Comment from Kim
Time: March 21, 2008, 8:01 am

Hi Dave and Pam (KTIS Listeners)

I have been struggling with the issue of parenting and government controls. After much consideration, I believe the court has made a poor ruling. Children are restricted from purchasing alcohol and cigarettes, seeing movies that require parental supervision in the movie theatre, along with a few other activities. This is one area I believe the government should intervene.

We live in a society that is quickly breaking up families and children are becoming the victims of emotional and physical violence. The rising prices of food, gasoline, and other general living expenses are causing more mothers to work outside of the home, some families are having to have both parents to work 2 jobs, and we have families that are single parent homes.

The school system is another arm of government that is promoting humanistic theology. “If it feels good do it, but protect yourself.” The new theory is there is no absolute truth. It is relative to your own perception. What child under 18 can grasp that concept? Better yet, if they do >> that theory becomes a powerful tool for manipulation and licentious behavior.
The violent video games become a source for active imaginations without rules to practice these games on real people. How many court testimonies does the court need to have before they can establish a link to violent crimes and video games. Granted, most of the links to these games and their crimes have involved children with a propensity towards violence.

The government isn’t protecting free speech or limiting the authority of parents. The government is helping an industry with a lot of money that they hope will support their paychecks and at the same time continue to devalue the significance of family. Children have become the pawns for the advancement of a new american world vision.

I leave you all with a question? When did we as a society view children as a throw away commodity?