Video games have a bad reputation. We’re told they’re responsible for a nation of fat, indolent children, that they condone – nay encourage – violent behaviour.

Whilst I certainly wouldn’t want any child of mine playing Resident Evil 5, Dead Space or – God forbid – any of the relentlessly tiresome Grand Theft Auto series, I wouldn’t object to them playing video games per se, much in the same way that I wouldn’t object to them watching films. In both cases I’d just want to ensure that what they watched or played was suitable.

You see all of the games I’ve mentioned above have 18 certificates in the UK and just like movies with the same rating shouldn’t be sold to anyone under the age of eighteen. It’s all fairly straightforward, these games are just not suitable, the fact that they are just games changes nothing.

This is the same moronic logic that sees parents letting their kids watch The Simpsons – because it’s a cartoon. It may well be a cartoon but that doesn’t mean it’s a show a child could, would or even should understand. The Simpsons is of a similar level of sophistication to Friends if in fact not more sophisticated, don’t let the fact that the cast are yellow and drawn funny throw you off the scent, The Simpsons is for grown ups..

We still find ourselves in the position where some feckless adult, through emotional pressure or sheer ignorance buys their ten year old child a video game that is horrendously unsuitable for them. The child then imitates the game and lo and behold we have a headline.

When I think back to when I was twelve – back in 1986 – I remember loving video games. Obsessively loving video games, spending hours a day playing games and when I wasn’t playing them I was reading about them.

The games then were nothing like they are today though, there was no video, 3D was rudimentary and games had to be written to fit inside 64 kilobytes of memory.

Gaming back in 1986 was more akin to reading a book than watching a movie. It took a lot of imagination to believe that the blob with 001 written on it really was a robot and that the overhead view of the spaceship you were steering said robot around really was a spaceship.

When The Last Ninja came out in 1987 it was a revelation. The graphics were astounding, the music was phenomenal, the gameplay a sensation. Yet looking at it today – which you can still do, it’s available to download on the Wii – it looks dated and those graphics, while pretty, really aren’t all that astounding.

Comparing it to Ninja Gaiden – the closest resemblance in modern gaming – highlights an almost immeasurable gulf.

Computer power has improved so much in the past twenty five years that in game effects are now almost indistinguishable from those displayed on the big screen. This means that when a character has their head chopped off in a game, kids are seeing something that they have no ability to process and eventually become desensitised to.

What must be remembered is that children are natural imitators – it’s how they learn things – so if they see Bart Simpson pulling down his shorts, they’ll do it. If they see a ninja leaping around, beating up evil henchmen, they’ll leap around pretending to be that ninja.

Christ, after I saw trailers for Robocop at the age of twelve, I spent four weeks walking around the house like a robot.

It is a parents responsibility to shield their child from the unsuitable and damaging, and this is exactly what certain video games are. Damaging.

Don’t blame video games for the nation of fat, aggressive children that we allegedly have, look closer to home. Good parenting is the only thing that is required.

Filed under: Gaming, Idiots, Ranting, BBFC, Games, Parenting, Reactionary, Scape Goat, Video Games