People not taking ratings seriously

It's not the industry's job to babysit kids. That's what parents are for.

the things that are on tv..

I can't stop laughing.

wouldnt be so bad if they stayed off the mic...

I was traumatized by watching Alien at age of 10 and It. But I'm pretty normal cannibal now.

You're not old fashioned, old fashioned would mean you would want parents to be more responsible and stop trying to let electronics raise their kids for them.

Not really. As long as they have responsible parents that teach them the difference between reality and games.

It's a recommendation only...............and I did it too..................but I don't like when childs come to play on a server where I'm playing and start talking on the microphone.

Its not the distributor's fault if the kid's parents are idiots.

I say, if the gameplay can be understood and enjoyed, that person is old enough to play.
This does not mean they're mature enough though, as we can clearly see with the 30/40-something year olds insulting peoples mothers over xbox live.

It's a recommendation, not a rule nor a law (lol). I remember playing Mortal Kombat on Mega Drive when I was 7, nobody cared what rating it had because it was bloody fun (pun not intended).

you are right and wrong imho

parents must monitorize their kids computer/game/internet usage

I agree some young people is not prepared to distinguish reality from fiction tho (without parenting)

Hmm. I don't know. But I don't approve my prepubescent brother playing games like Grand Theft Auto. Ninja Gaiden is okay. :-/

I was four when I played carmageddon (1997), I have played multiple GTA's as well, and even manhunt, yet I'm the sanest person I know.
Why would I be traumatized by something I know is going to happen and something I want to do?

I'm glad my parents gave me some freedom, I wouldn't want to live in a world where you can't make your own choices. How are you supposed to learn something if you can't even make your own choices?

Another important example of freedom: people are starting to smoke at a younger age every year. At a certain moment when I was 14, most of my friends smoked. It's still my choice to smoke. It doesn't matter what my parents or my friends think. I chose not to smoke, even though my parents wouldn't stop me and my friends encourage me to smoke. Some people will smoke just because their parents don't want them to, EVEN if they don't want to smoke themselves. So if you ask me, freedom is a good thing.

The parents are responsible. They should know what their childeren are doing and wether they can deal with the game and the online interaction.

Rock, techno, D&D, sex, religion and all sorts of other things has been "known" to traumatize kids. Now its TV, games and gangsta rap - maybe people should start raising their kids themselves, and stop blaming everyone and everything when they fail.

obviously traumatized

wat

In my honest opinion rating are pretty useless, but like other people have pointed out, they are necessary(not really for the children's sake but for the game companies' sake). Age is not a clear indicator on how mature someone is. A 12 year old can be significantly more mature than even a 19 year old. It all depends on how their lives have gone and what example they have been getting from the people around them- usually parents.
That's where the irony comes- intelligent parents have a higher chance of having an intelligent mature child, yet they usually (but not always since they know their child wouldn't be affected by it) uphold the ratings, while in the same sense stupid parents have a higher chance of having a stupid arrogant child, and THEY usually don't CARE. So this makes the illusion that the majority of small kids playing higher rated video games are being affected by them. And THEN, those parents blame the games for their lack of good example.
Now I can't say that this is 100% accurate but it's just an observation I've made. My mother is a 1-4th grade teacher and usually complains (to me, of course) about how the most arrogant kids usually have just as arrogant parents. Also apparently children have been getting more violent lately. But that's not the fault of video games (or movies, or anything of that sort). It's just that they're being taught by their parents that they can do whatever they want and can get away with it without consequences.

Sorry, am I getting sidetracked? Well, TL:DR- it's the parents' fault!

Car makers should ensure that underage people can't drive them :(
Gun makers should prevent their guns from being usable by anyone below the age of 20 :(
.....

No...people that make games make games and that's that. If there's to be any policing then that responsibility falls to the parents, no one else.

And I really don't get how anyone is traumatized, it's just a game and I would have told you the same when I was 2 (24 now). I will never understand how anyone fuses fiction with reality and anyone that does had problems long before any game showed up even if that game is GTA.

Granted I don't think it's right for anyone below the age of say 16 at the lowest to play GTA...but it's up to the parents. Stop trying to to get others to do your job of raising your kid for you. Even as a kid I would have just seen it as mere entertainment and stayed the way I am or if my parents were doing the job right, which they were, I would have been appalled and ignored the game.

And the same goes for any game...I'm not even going to warrant something like Team Fortress with a response though because thanks to it's style it's always been obvious that it's only entertainment.

I'll only give your argument any sort of merit once we achieve fully photo realism (and then only for photo realistic games) and VR gaming because then even completely sane people might have a hard time telling them apart. But then I believe they should go from being mature only games to plain being banned for everyone.

Ratings on ALL forms of entertainment aren't meant to act as a ruleset for kids by the way but rather as a guide for parents when deciding whether to allow their kid to experience that entertainment or not.

This been going on ever since Mortal Kombat started the rating thing. Again..it's not the games, it's the child just needing discipline and good parenting, a game can't control anyone. I was playing Mortal Kombat when it first came out when I was around 6 then Killer Instinct, and it did not effect my behavior to just go outside and go awol on someone. As someone said before look at some of the adults and mid 20's my age raging like 8yr olds in online matches like their life depends on it.

distributors have nothing to do with holding up the rating, its up to parents; and don't get me started on the whole 'kids are dragged up these days'. and also the distributors don't issue the age rating on games most of the time an external company does.

When I was a little kids movies were way more scary/traumatizing then any game. Just sayin.

It depends on the game. Sometimes the rating is warranted and sometimes it isn't. Also, some parents think some things are okay for the kids and some think other things are. Therefore, parents should make the choice, not distributors.

It would be hypocritical of me to say no they shouldn't. I grew up playing games like Mortal Kombat and GTA. But I really don't want them in my online games.

Don't make generalizations based on age. There are always exceptions who will feel as if they are being treated based on the behavior of the majority of people in their age group.

I've played M rated games even before teenage years, and I'm not trying to kill anyone. I happily live life with a healthy circle of friends and family and a promising career. Just because you hear annoying children on games aimed at annoying children doesn't mean all children are annoying, is what I'm trying to say.