unforum

[Phaedra]

[drseuss90]

[Phaedra]

[drseuss90]

[Phaedra]

[water10]

[drseuss90]

[Fenwicked]

I don't think what anyone has proposed here is that we take away a parent's right to choose what is appropriate for their own children. Of course that's their decision. The problem is, so many children seem to be able to bypass parental supervision, either by their own efforts, or by their parent's negligence. When you get down to it, parents need to be parents, more than just biologically. And I think any tools the government can offer, and is willing to offer, such as a rating system, that can help parents in their duties, should be highly encouraged.

Oh, and the best way to pop bubble wrap is scrunching a lot of it up and twisting it. Everyone knows that.

[weephun]

[Clayfoot]

Assume for a moment that it is not illegal in your community to provide tobacco to children. Suppose a parent allows their child to take up smoking. When this child asks you to share tobacoo with them, are you obliged by the parents wishes to provide a cigarette, if you have one to share? If this child frequents certain public places you also frequent, should you engage the child and give them a light? What if it was alcohol, instead of cigarettes? What if it was heroin, instead of alcohol? It's not all the parents' responsibility when their children play violent video games. If you are enabling children to play violent video games by your own participation, you share some of the blame, if the child is harmed. You probably can't get the child to stop playing violent video games. You may not be able to convince any parents to curb their child's play. You likely won't persuade the online services to tighten up access to violent games. What you can do, at the least, is withhold that cigarette when the child asks for it.

[SuperJerms]

What if there were some actual teeth to the user agreement for Live!

For example, I can't think of a single day I have played on Live where someone didn't have something inappropriate in his or her gamertag. How about adding a $5 processing fee for changing a tag if it was because of violation? Maybe we'd have fewer people named after genetalia, marijuana, racism or cuss words?

[Clayfoot]

BTW, I don't necessarily object to children playing all games on XBox Live. Most of the athletic sports and racing games are rated 'E' for everyone. So long as the parent monitors what other people say and do with their children (you don't want your kid giving out his name, age, and phone number), XBox Live is fine for children. I limit my criticism to 'T'-rated, 'M'-rated, and 'AO'-rated games.

The credit card isn't really supposed to prevent children from joining XBox Live. It's just supposed to require the parent's knowledge (and implicit consent) that the child is doing so. The younger a child is, the more difficult it would be to join XBox Live without a parent's knowledge. XBox Live is actually designed to accomodate children to some extent. The voice masking is one example of that accomodation; it's designed to prevent children from revealing their age by the sound of their voices.

The problem is, there's no accomodation for adults that don't want to play adult games with children. Even if a child's parent lets them play M-rated games at home, I wouldn't let them play at my house. On XBox Live, I don't have that option, because I can't tell how old anyone is, except by the sound of their voice and by their general behavior.

What I need is a system that lets me know if someone is "old enough" to play a given game, without revealing the person's age. XBox Live could provide me with an icon that indicates 'OK-to-play' a given game I'm in. Unfortunately, that tells me whether a given person is over 17, and possibly a no-no under the COPA. Alternatively, the system could be even more "blind": XBox Live could provide an opt-out sytem, where I elect to play with underage people or not. If I do opt-out, XBox Live simply refuses to host the match when I'm in the lobby with someone who is underaged. It could be handled much like the 'map not loaded' message now. Instead, it would say 'mismatched players' or something. No one would necessarily know exactly who was too young or who opted out. We could hang out in the lobby indefinitely, but we would never be able to play that game with the 'M'-rating. Roll that into the team-matching system, and I never have to wonder whether that high-pitched voice is a woman or a grade school child.

[water10]

[Fenwicked]

[krystyn]

A lot of those gamertags are rude and obnoxious precisely because people will let them know that they're offended by them.

If I do give any feedback, it's to mock them for spending money on that gamertag.

A little positive reinforcement goes a long way.