I’ve long maintained that it’s vital to protect our children from today’s digital devilry, and today I have the indisputable scientific proof of internet polls on my side. Following up on a poll from earlier in the year, What They Play has surveyed some 1,600 concerned citizens, and discovered that unsupervised minors playing Grand Theft Auto is a bigger cause for concern than drinking beer or watching pornography. Honestly, I think it’s the uncertainty that scares parents so much; it’s so much more worrying when one’s children play a game that might have sexual content. At least with porn, you know what you’re in for, and you can prepare the proper level of outrage in advance.
To be fair, poll respondents actually chose “smoking marijuana” as the biggest worry, beating out GTA more than 2:1. Still, as phrased so eloquently by What They Play president John Davison in regards to an earlier poll, “WTF?” These are the same polls that taught us that sex (or a hint of homosexuality) are worse that graphic violence and language. Yet, here, a violent/sexual videogame is a bigger cause for concern than actual pornography. Perhaps I’m being unfair; perhaps I can’t fully understand these seemingly opposing concerns since I do not have children. This, mind you, is why I need someone to explain it to me. You’d rather your 17-year-old got drunk and/or looked at some boobs than play a game in which someone else gets drunk and/or looks at some boobs? My brain hurts.
An interesting hypothesis is made by Grand Theft Childhood co-author Cheryl K. Olson in the press release:
“To some parents, video games are full of unknowable dangers. While researching for Grand Theft Childhood, parents we spoke with in focus groups often bemoaned the fact that they didn’t know how to use game controls - and felt unequipped to supervise or limit video game play. Of course, parents don’t want their children drinking alcohol, but that’s a more familiar risk.”
I think Ms. Olson is partly right; it’s frustrating to think that one’s children are engaged in an activity one doesn’t know how to monitor or evaluate. What may drive these fears even further, I think, is that the other suggested activities are ones that parents engaged in themselves, as children. Any parent in the world can easily smile a nostalgic smile and say, “Ah, I drank beer and watched pornography when I was that age, and I turned out okay.” The same can’t be said for videogames — yet. We can continue to hope that as more gamers become parents, these fears will fade, and soon we can all get up in arms about the next newfangled technology, and about why those kids are on our lawn.
(Of course, there’s a huge hole in my argument if you come back to marijuana as the biggest concern of all, ’cause you know your parents were getting high when they were your age.)
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