Mitt: I’ll “go after” retailers who sell violent adult video games

HotAir ^

[donnab]

waits for you to post his answer.

[donnab]

I don’t want the government to tell me what and when to feed my kids. I don’t want the government to tell me how to raise them. I don’t want the government to decide for my kids what level of maturity they should be at.
I want the government out of MY house.
I will take the responsibility myself. After all this is a free nation...or is it?

[Outership]

“We need to start somewhere. That is an excuse to not do anything. Right now, we are seeing a free-for-all because people keep making the same kind of argument that you make. All it does is enable evil.”

We are not seeing this free-for-all because people are making the argument I made. We are seeing it because humanity’s evil passions are running unchecked by morality. Nothing enables these passions, they are the natural impulse of humanity. You cannot ban humanity’s natural evil passions, you must bring them to Christ. If a child does not learn this in his raising, then only by finding the Lord will he get another chance. Otherwise, he is a slave in his sin and no amount of banning will free him from acting on his evil passions. Society might gain the appearance of righteousness, but it will be a sham. People will express their evil passions even if every piece of media is banned. Not only that, but society will simply ignore the ban. If the penalty for this is death, the electric chair will never be cold again. It doesn’t stop there, for evil will manifest in the ruling class. Soon, only immoral people will control what is banned and who gets executed. You will see a complete reversal, so all things moral are destroyed and all things evil are venerated. The cycle will then continue. You must defeat the urge to want R rated material. This can only be accomplished by a walk with Christ. Children must have good parenting by parents that are good role models, or their chances of having morality are critically diminished.

If you want to do something, raise your children right. Beyond that, be active in your church. Also, tell everyone you can what the true solution is. This a supernatural problem and God must be involved for it to be fixed. We are not God, it is not in our power to fix it with mortal laws.

[bubbacluck]

Ok. Now I’m on board.

[Outership]

A lot of what you say is the same thing I’m saying, I think we agree on most of this issue.

It’s true that my answer to amoral television, movies, games, books, and behavior is to flee from it. I make my own decision on what is amoral. I understand that you want to fight amoral media and behavior. You want there to be a law that states what is amoral and a ban on same. We both agree that amorality is bad.

I never meant to suggest that children can be completely shielded from amoral material. I feel that if a good example is set at home and amoral material is not welcome there, a child will learn right from wrong even if they choose to do wrong. Eventually they will mature into moral beings, or so goes the hope of every parent who cares about morality. Of course, some children don’t achieve morality no matter what the parent does. Never did I state that what a child turns into is the parent’s fault. I only stated that bad parents disadvantage children and good parents increase their chances for becoming moral individuals. Ultimately, it is up to every person to choose on their own if they will follow Christ or not. It is the point of life. The morality of society reflects how many have chosen wisely.

I’d really like to see your list of video games that you feel are amoral, and the reasons you have for feeling that way. This is coming from a person who doesn’t watch television anymore due to how offensive it has become. Almost all video games are clean.

[E Rocc]

There used to be apocyphal stories like this years ago, but the blame was given to cartoons and/or The Three Stooges.

[Sir Gawain]

This is a security issue because being so morally depraved makes us more vulnerable. Really violent games are very detrimental to the spirtual well being of our country.

Try doing your job as a parent and you wouldn't have to worry about the state doing it for you.

[Mr. Jeeves]

He and his older, voter-age, gaming compatriots are VERY MILITANT against ANY candidate who wants to make video games with violence in them harder to purchase or use. They get on bandwagons faster than we do against Hillary. This is no joke.

The Republican Party is stone deaf toward this kind of voter, as they proved with the online gambling ban. They are pandering to "mom" again - worse than the Clinton Democrats ever did.

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks for the nice reply. I understand where you are coming from. My post was intended to point out some of the problems with going the route you suggested, but then I think you see some of the same problems with that, that I do.

As for current video games out there, I am not able to specificly address the issue. I do see games advertised on the tube and the ones I do seem oriented toward killing the enemy. If that perception is flawed, then I’ll take my limps for stating an untruth.

Am I being inaccurate here? Are the video games you’ve seen firsthand in line with the morals you want to see adopted by your kids? Perhaps they are. I sure don’t get that impression from the limited exposure I have these days.

[Politicalmom]

What makes you think you have the right to make decisions for OTHER PEOPLE’S CHILDREN?

[darkangel82]

I saw a movie about that on VH1 in 2002. When Dee Snider pw3ned Al and Tipper I was laughing so hard I fell off my chair.

[Outership]

“...I do see games advertised on the tube and the ones I do seem oriented toward killing the enemy.”
“Are the video games you’ve seen firsthand in line with the morals you want to see adopted by your kids?”

Video games are like movies, and so they have to be judged on a case by case - child by child basis. Video games are also like models or sports. The very best thing you can do is to play the games with your child. Sit with him as he plays and watch the action. Play together if it is a two player game. Share time with him in his hobby, develop an interest in it yourself. Play it when he is not around so that you understand what it’s about. Discuss the game’s characters and plot with your child as if it were a movie. He will see how you experience each game when you play together and it will influence him in how he experiences it. If you find a game immoral, be disgusted with it and tell him why it’s bad. You are the single most influential earthly force he will ever have in his entire life. He will be permanently impacted by your morals, but even more importantly he will be permanently impacted by the love you show him by sharing this experience with him. It is like the days of old where a boy would play catch with his father. This is simply a different kind of game. It is something that you could share with each other for a lifetime.

If you are just starting your child out with video games, go into a video game store and read the backs of the games there that catch your eye. Go with your child and watch which games he looks at and then look at them yourself. Ask him what he likes about the games he says he wants. If he rattles off game jargon you don’t yet understand, don’t panic, it will all become clear once you play it yourself. Almost every game has Disneyesque morals where you are the hero out to save the day. The scant few exceptions to this rule are easy to spot, as you can figure games where you play as a gang member or mobster are probably not good for your child. On the way out, maybe pick up a video game magazine. Reading though just one of those will bring you right up to speed.

If your child already plays games at a friend’s house, ask him which ones he’s playing and then look them up on gamespot.com and see what they are about. If your child has games at home already, play them yourself and see what you think of them. Read the box, read the manual, watch him play, play it yourself.

Remove the mystery from video games. Learn the names of the different consoles (PC, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, GameCube, Playstation 3, Playstation 2, PSP, DS) and be able to identify them by sight. Learn the different genres of video games (Action, Adventure, First-Person-Shooter, Role-Playing Game, Strategy, Puzzle, Sports, Platform, Simulation, Fighting, Rhythm, Massive Multiplayer Online) and be able to tell which one a game is by sight. Play your child’s favorite game all the way through (read it’s box and it’s manual all the way through as well). Learn how the video game console works (it has an instruction book too). Think of it like memorizing and understanding the rules of football. It’s just another kind of game. Someday you will be rattling off video game jargon as easily as sports statistics.

If your child is in the stage where he resists your entry into his hobby, just be gentile and persistent. It’s his hobby, so he loves to talk about it. If you know about games he will engage you. If the console is in his room ask him if he wants to move it into the family room (you know, where the big TV is). If he resists, just buy another console and put it in the family room. Get another copy of his favorite game and play it out there. This kind of action will melt his heart for sure. Don’t worry if learning about video games seems alien at first. There is no way to fail in this kind of thing. Just making the attempt will form a bond between you two, and that is the only point of it.

[rodeo-mamma]

You made a lot of good sense in your post, about families doing their job. I still don’t think what I wrote was wrong though. Cause the fact is, I don’t think there is anything wrong with setting standards of decency.