A hot topic among parents and media is once again the controversy regarding age-appropriate content, and whether children should be allowed to play certain games, or even watch them. Halo3 anyone…

We’re all different with our kids, and we all have different ideas about what our children can or should be exposed to. KidConfidence (Cola and I) don’t pretend to have a one-fits-all answer to this question. However, we try our best to provide enough information and show actual game-play video footage in our reviews to assist parents and families, especially those who don’t play games, in their decision making process.

Our site visitors frequently ask about how we personally handle age-appropriateness of games for our own son Chase (8).
Lucky for us, Cola and I are part of the generation that is young enough to have grown up playing games, but old enough to have kids. As joystick-wielding parents ourselves we are admittedly in a much better position to determine if a game is suitable for our child than the media, the ESRB or Hillary Clinton.

1) We always download the demo or take a look for ourself’s, without our son first. An hour of gameplay is usually enough to decide if the game is okay or not for him to play. We do not let him watch a game that we feel is inappropriate for him to play.

2) We do consider the ESRB ratings, but only to a certain extend. The differences between an “M” for Mature rated Halo 3, which compares to a Star Wars Movie in regards of violence, and “M” rated games like BioShock or Manhunt, which compare to movies like “Hostel”, make the ESRB rating system much to general for our personal use. However, if it is “M” or “T” rated we always play it first without him (see above).

3) We prefer to expose our son to questionable content at home with us, rather then have him sneak off to a friend’s house where forbidden things become “so cool” and tempting. We discuss the game first and what to expect, play and then discuss again. So far, he left every “M” rated game (Gears of War, Crackdown, SplinterCell) satisfied, saying that the game is not that special for his taste and way to difficult for a boy his age. On the other hand, he now trusts our judgment when we say that games like Manhunt2, BioShock and GTA  contain acts and images of exaggerated violence and brutality and we consequently don’t want him exposed to it at his age.

4) Last but not least, we are in constant dialogue with other parents in the neighborhood. And since it is usually our family who has the latest games, we inform other parents and ask for their child’s permission to play.

Chris Anderson, the editor in chief of Wired suggested an even more intriguing strategy: the “Lego Rule.” The Lego Company, it seems, has a policy of not producing toys that replicate 20th century weapons. “You can have swords, and you can have laser guns in space, but no actual 20th century guns,” Anderson says. So his four children can play games like Halo, since it contains only futuristic, fantasy war, where you’re killing only green- or blue-blooded aliens. The same goes for Roman swordplay titles. “But it clearly walls off Grand Theft Auto.”

In the case of Halo3, where the enemies are aliens, the blood blue and the setting hundreds of years into the future, I don’t think we’re running the risk of promoting realistic violence.

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