The Children's Crusade

In the past few years, controversy has re-emerged like a particularly vengeful grizzly bear awakens from hibernation, bringing with it much public condemnation across all sorts of entertainment media - music, movies, video games, and even books. This disturbing trend has been exploited time and again by politicians (Remember Joe Lieberman and the Mortal Kombat debacle?). But do these fear-mongers have a fair point in that these forms of entertainment, sick and wrong, should be prohibited from sale, at the very least, to minors? What course of action should be taken when video games get increasingly realistic, movies become spectacles of sex and nudity, and music is rife with profanity and sexism? Do they have a fair point?

Short answer. No.

Long answer. No, and all your arguments are ignorant and misinformed.

I'm not going to cite statistics to disprove the mind-numbingly flawed arguments that these crusaders drape over their bodies like some sort of self-righteous cloak. My opinion on this matter is that it is ultimately futile to attempt to regulate sales, or prohibit them altogether to a certain demographic. For one, it wouldn't change anything, for two, it'd be unbelievably difficult to enforce, for three, it'd be bad for business, and for four, remember the last time you tried to prohibit sales of a certain something that supposedly corrupted people? Remember how that turned out?

Hawks like Hilary Clinton, I believe, don't even care about the effects of these games on kids, they're just looking for supporters, playing off the insecurities and outrages of parents.

Whenever I go to my friend's house and we play something like Gears of War, (which we haven't in quite some time because he'd know I'd thrash him six ways to Sunday ;)), he immediately kicks out his younger siblings due to the extremely high level of gore, violence, profanity, and the idiots over Xbox Live. That's responsible, that's wise, and it's the right thing to do in regards to this situation. Instead of outright banning them, exercise responsibility as to what you let your kids get exposed to. It's why you became a parent, isn't it? Know what your kid is playing: Halo 3 has cartoonish violence, complete with purple alien blood, nothing worse than you'd see on TV. Ninja Gaiden 2, however, features rivers of blood, dismembered limbs flying in every direction, and if there isn't a decapitation every fifteen seconds, you're playing the game wrong.

This doesn't just apply to video games. I wouldn't want my kid to listen to Enter the Wu-Tang or watch Rambo: First Blood, for example. The rating system exists for a reason. In the end, my point is simply this: raise your kid, don't let the politicians do it for you.