A 12-year-old has decided to stop talking to his mum for the rest of the year after she told him he couldn’t play MA15+ video games.
As long as there have been video games, there have been questions about the sort of content they contain. As games have become more realistic and started to explore more adult themes, the debate around them has become more heated.
Bring kids into the mix, and it becomes an entirely different argument. Video games now have some pretty strict classifications for good reasons, but should parents allow their children to play higher classified games?
Parent Meriel Myers is in one such predicament with their son. Her son has decided to stop talking to her for the rest of the year because she won’t allow him to play Grand Theft Auto (GTA) or Call of Duty, games both classified as MA15+.
Shocked by this turn of events, Myers took to Twitter to ask the platform: “Am I being too strict here?“. The question has gotten a lot of attention, and many are fired up about it.
My son is refusing to speak to me for the rest of the year as I won't let him play adult console games… He's 12 and he wants to play GTA and Call of Duty because all his friends are doing it… Am I being too strict here?
— Meriel (@MerielMyers) April 24, 2022
Myers’s son is currently 12 years old and says that many of his friends are already playing them. That’s still a couple of years off from the games he wants to play that received an MA15+ classification for gang violence, nudity, extremely coarse language, and drug and alcohol abuse.
Some parents support Meriel, saying that the game classifications are there for a reason, while some say it’s a missed opportunity to parent the kid.
My boys played the games and they are great upstanding men now. I'm proud of them. Games don't ruin kids , bad parenting does. I guess what I'm saying is if you're good at parenting your kids, nothing will come between that.
— Lala (@Lala56535270) April 25, 2022
There are a number of benefits that are associated with allowing children to play video games. That doesn’t necessarily mean that parents should let them play any game they want, especially MA15+ titles if they’re younger.
Parenting is always going to be a difficult task. What makes it more challenging is the different styles between parents. Once seen by a kid from the outside, they might find the way they’re parented unfair.
What do you think about this situation? Let us know!
