Do you let your kids play FPS?

[Vdubchaos]

For those with no kids. What age do you think is appropriate for kids to play FPS games?

For those with kids. How old are they? And do you let them play yet?

I have 4 kids, 4, 7, 8 year old boys and 12 year old daughter. 7 and 8 year old (as well as my daughter) all play Modern Warfare 2.

How it all started was kind of funny. I was playing Unreal 2004 back 2-3 years ago and I walked away from my computer. I didn't play FPS in front of kids, but that day I left it on the screen and didn't close the door. 5 min later when I came back, I see my son playing it...he rotates to look at me with a HUGE smile on his face. Kind of a priceless moment.

What was really amazing is that he figured out WSAD keys within minutes. At that point I said....ahh it's too late. I sat them down and explained to them all they needed to know about FPS (that its not real and in real world people don't go around shooting eachother) gave them a little lesson on guns etc.

2 weeks after that my older son was amazing, it's really crazy how fast they learn these things. He was doing head shots left and right and pretty much owning UT2004 bots on hard level. Since then they've played Unreal 3 and mostly been playing Call of Duty (original).

Recently I got 2 copies of Modern Warfare 2 and they LOVE it. We have 2 PC set up in our office so we all have game nights. What I don't like about MW2 is there is no dedicated servers so people swear in text and names, but we just tape a piece of paper to cover the text and I don't allow them on the 1 min break screen (they have to go to Class). Of course Voice is turned off. Although I must say swearing in text and names went down significantly since the early days. Besides it's not like they don't already know every word int he book. hehe

Anyways, I don't see a problem with them playing. I'm always there, it's great family time and it is limited to Friday/sat nights/weekends. They are looking forward to Bad Company 2.

Past few months they have gotten REALLY good. Know all the maps inside out and recently they are getting AC130 or Chopper almost every map. My oldest son got 2 AC130s on one map last week.

It's getting to a point where they are better then my friends we play with...and they are embarrassed. On top of that, I'm affraid they are going to start owning their daddy pretty soon.

So now my 4 year old wants to play (he doesn't get to even watch yet) but he is def ready as far as skill goes. He's been playing Miniclip/Nick Jr games and has WASD/space/escape etc already memorized (doesn't look). Figured another year and he is fine.

Besides, some of the miniclip games are FPS (we just don't let him play those). Little sneak does try sneak it in sometimes...and has played it in the past.

My 12 year old daughter does seem to enjoy it too, perhaps not as much as boys. Either way, they all do well in school and although not perfect, they are GREAT kids compare to what I see out there. It is GREAT family fun that we all look forward to every week.

Now I have to figure out when to build more rigs so we can all play at once vs 2 at a time. And of course kids will be building the PC! :biggrin:

Anyways, just wondering how everyone feels about this/what they do with their kids.

 

[veri745]

I don't have kids yet, but I don't think I would let them play anything remotely violent until they're about 10. I think there's a ton of games out there sans violence that it would be unnecessary.

I know plenty of kids under the age of 7-8 that don't seem to completely understand the difference between real and pretend. I guess you as the parent need to know if your own kids can handle it, and I'll have to see how I feel about that when I have kids that age.

 

[Spoooon]

I'll preface this with: I do not have kids and all kids are not the same.

In general, it's probably a good idea to wait until they are older. Too much research suggests that video games and some violent play desensitize kids to violence.

However, I imagine it would depend a lot on the environment. If the kids were holed up in a dark room at all hours playing some FPS, it might be cause for concern. I think that playing around friends and family, everyone laughing and having a good time, etc., would go a long way towards mitigating any of that desensitization.

And monitoring your kids at all is probably better than what a good number of parents are doing.

 

[AstroManLuca]

I am not a parent. But I would NOT let my kids play FPS games at age 7 or 8. I wouldn't want to be the hardass parent his kids hate, but I wouldn't want my kids playing Call of Duty or any other realistic shooter until they're at least 14. Until then they'll have to make do with other games or perhaps the more cartoony shooters. Halo seems to be about halfway between T and M, while Modern Warfare 2 is firmly entrenched in the M-rated category.

OP, I really hope you at least don't let your children play the "No Russian" mission. In fact I'd avoid the single player campaign entirely for such young children.

 

[Vdubchaos]

No, they don't play single player at all. Wouldn't let them play that mission...and they can't even watch it when I played it.

They do play Special Ops, which is pretty cool.

I kind of think back to when I was a kid, my parents didn't care that i had internet access and played these types of games early as well. I turned out just fine.

I believe that as long as there is no swearing, they are good kids and do well in school, they can get weekends to play with daddy.

What I really like about Call of Duty is that it gives me a chance to teach them about World War 2. My older son is really interested in it, brings history books home etc. Heck I bet he knows more about WW2 history then most people hehe.

So it's nice to kind of use it as a history lesson as well.

PS. My kids do not have internet access AT ALL without us being there, and no "anytime" access to the computer. It's something they earn.

From parenting standpoint, you guys have to remember things that seem cool to kids are some of the best tools for parents to use against them when time comes.

 

[Skott]

My daughter (now grown and married) was never into FPS games. I would have let her play them if she wanted to since she has always been pretty mature for her age. As to what minimum age? I think that depends on the child. This is where the parent needs to be involved. I've always felt that if you are okay letting the child watch movies of that type of content and are okay with it then its also okay to let them play video games with the same content. The parent still needs to monitor the child though to make sure they are not becoming unbalanced in some way.

 

[Tristicus]

I'm going to let my kids play whatever they want. They'll be smart enough to know fantasy from reality.

 

[EvilComputer92]

I played Unreal Tournament when I was 9. I don't want go around killing people pretending I'm in a game of deathmatch.






At least not usually.

 

[inspiron]

To be honest I think 4 is too young, and possibly 7 is too young for modern warfare... at 10 though at least I could handle any game. teens defintally shood be allowed, but underteen its judgement of the parent and in my opinion 10+ should be allowed to play anything they like.

 

[astrosfan315]

I let my 8 y/o play FPS all the time..but make sure the mic send/receive is disabled His favorite is Call of Duty World at War. He's prestige level 3 almost prestige 4 and has more first place victories then I do! Others he plays regularly are Battlefront II, BF2, BF2142, BF:Vietnam. I don't let him play CS, TF2, or 'scary' games like doom, quake etc. Just military shooters and star wars shooters. I had to buy me a new rig and give him my old one b/c we were fighting over the computer too much lol.

I have been playing the Bad Comany 2 beta, and I won't let him play it though they drop the f bomb too much in game.

(oh and BTW he's on an elite soccer team, makes straight As, and is a green belt in tae kwon do, so he's not some fat ass lazy kid.)

As for my daughter, she could care less. She plays Nancy Drew games, peggle, and rock band on the wii lol.

 

[naddicott]

If you want to consider the research literature, here is a 2001 article reviewing the state of the research at that time:
http://www.psychology.iastate.edu/faculty/caa/abstracts/2000-2004/01BA.ap.pdf

You'll have to dig deeper for context, but in some cases the correlation between early exposure to violent media (more TV than games) and aggressive behavior was close to the correlation between smoking and lung cancer (see Fig 2).

There was a study following 450 kids that looked at the effects 15 years after the initial study that published their results in the March 2003 edition of Developmental Psychology. The impact of early violent TV was still significant after factoring for many of the usual objections to these studies. From their conclusion:

A longitudinal structural modeling analysis of the directionality of the effects suggested that it is more plausible that exposure to TV violence increases aggression than that aggression increases TV-violence viewing. These structural modeling analyses also demonstrated that the effects were not simply a consequence of lower SES children or less intellectually able children both watching more violence and being more at risk for aggressive and violent behavior. The structural models show that for both boys and girls, habitual early exposure to TV violence is predictive of more aggression by them later in life independent of their own initial childhood aggression, their own intellectual capabilities, their social status as measured by their parents' education or their fathers' occupations, their parents' aggressiveness, their parents' mobility orientation, their parents' TV viewing habits (including violence viewing), and their parents' rejection, nurturance, and punishment of them in childhood. Furthermore, the structural models suggest that being aggressive in early childhood has no effect on increasing males' exposure to media violence as adults and only a small effect for females.

Personally, I wouldn't let my own kids play an FPS before the age of seven at the earliest. Probably nine or older if there was any other evidence of aggressive behavior patterns. An FPS may well be less risky than exposure to violence on TV, but I wouldn't take the risk.

 

[mizzou]

I started playing WOLF3d when I was like 8 or 10, any younger you probalby don't have the coordination to make it worthwhile

 

[simonizor]

The age ratings are usually good to go by (not the actual ages that they use, but the categories that they lump games into). I wouldn't ever have a kid in the first place, but if I did, I wouldn't let them play mature games until 14 or so depending on their maturity levels. Teen games you could probably start around 12. Much earlier than that and you're going to end up with some bad mouthing kids; a lot of mature games stick curse words in everywhere for extra cool factor.

It's really up to you, though. Screen the game first to see if it's appropriate, and go from there.

 

[mmntech]

I was allowed to play games like Wolfenstine 3D and Doom at around the age of 10. My parents were smart enough to educate me that it was fantasy, not reality. Some kids can handle it some can't. However, those games weren't realistic as the ones today are.

Kids and teens shouldn't play M rated games period. T rated games, I'd say the cutoff is about 10-12 depending whether the kid can handle it or not. You just have to observe your kids.

 

[Fenixgoon]

i played doom when i was 7 or so. i turned out alright

 

[happy medium]

9 or 10 is good. Depends on the kids maturity level.
Iv'e seen kids at 10 still getting dressed by their mom.
Other kids like myself that woke up in the morning got dressed and made myself breakfast before school. Did my homework on my own. All kids are different.

Edit: I played Combat on the Atari 2600 when I was 9 (1979) and I never shot down a plane when I became older.

 

[soccerballtux]

it all depends on their mental ability to separate fact from fiction.
To me the people in the game moving are just targets. Therein lies the fun, not that you're killing people.

 

[disappoint]

lol@ combat on the atari 2600. To this day I don't understand why real tanks don't just spin around when you shoot them. And I shoot them every chance I get.

 

[Vdubchaos]

I have been playing the Bad Company 2 beta, and I won't let him play it though they drop the f bomb too much in game.

I seen that in videos. My kids want it bad but if they swear then they either play with no sound or don't play at all.

(unless there is a way to disable Voice/swears.

So you can probably relate to buying 2 games of each kind isn't cheap hehe

PS. I bought 2 when Barnes and Nobles had $20 special (hope they don't cancel).

Also I do not let them play Doom/scary games YET. Then again it is a great idea for punishment if they misbehave. Lock them in a dark room, speakers blasting. I keed I keed.

 

[TridenT]

I don't have kids, but around age 10 it would be near free reign. That's the age that I got the internet totally unleashed on my ass in a separate room of the house. Although I had dial-up and had to learn the torture of wanting to download everything but it taking years... Also it dc'd a lot because if someone called us it would disconnect. :'( Sad times.

 

[lxskllr]

My daughter isn't interested in playing FPSs, but the only game(I have) I'd hesitate to let her play is Postal2. She likes watching me play games, and has seen all the big FPSs out there.

 

[Zenoth]

Depends which FPS and depends on the maturity of the concerned kid(s). I wouldn't let my kid play STALKER or any "modern warfare" types of games à-la CoD or Battlefield or anything explicitly related to war with obvious violence all over the screen, but I would let my kid play Portal. The thing is that the FPS genre isn't exactly friendly for children, there are some exceptions but there's only a few of them.

It's somewhat hypocritical of me however, because I myself was never restricted in terms of what I could play at any age since my parents didn't care about that back in the days, it was up to ourselves to control ourselves and mature up our minds about what wasn't real and what wasn't good to imitate, I always had a good entourage and family though, lucky, it's not the case for everyone, there are children out there that have gone through lots of obstacles and can be very easily influenced, and violent games or violent FPS games in particular can play a negative role as much as a "bad" friend might influence him or her in starting to smoke or taking drugs.

I don't have kids, but if I did I would certainly supervise every single video games he or she or they would want to play until they themselves are mature enough to buy their own games with their own money and take their own decisions in life, which usually don't happen until late in their teenage years.

 

[PieIsAwesome]

I am not a parent. But I would NOT let my kids play FPS games at age 7 or 8. I wouldn't want to be the hardass parent his kids hate, but I wouldn't want my kids playing Call of Duty or any other realistic shooter until they're at least 14. Until then they'll have to make do with other games or perhaps the more cartoony shooters. Halo seems to be about halfway between T and M, while Modern Warfare 2 is firmly entrenched in the M-rated category.

OP, I really hope you at least don't let your children play the "No Russian" mission. In fact I'd avoid the single player campaign entirely for such young children.

Realistic? Bwahahah! Its like Unreal with AK47s and grenades.


I thinkt he first FPS I played was Goldeneye when I was like in 4th grade. I don't even yell at people, no violent tendencies here.

 

[HeXploiT]

My daughter is ten. She's a Rome Total War addict. lol
Aside from that all her games are kids games. No I wouldn't let her play shooters.

It's somewhat hypocritical of me however, because I myself was never restricted in terms of what I could play at any age since my parents didn't care about that back in the day

It's not hypocritical. It's called being a good parent.

 

[guy93]

I have a 7 year old brother who plays GTA 4 and GTA San Andreas?