When I was younger, my friend and I managed to get a hold of "Postal!". At the time it was the only computer game to have ever been banned in New Zealand. It was therefore the coolest game that had ever come to New Zealand - and it's pretty tough for a 13 year old to see it any differently than that.
I think a restricted age rating for video games are a good thing, but really only as an aid to responsible parents. The irresponsible ones don't care what their kids are playing anyway, and a sufficiently motivated kid with parents that will allow them to play those games will find a way to get hold of them.
I don't think the content of video games is as big an issue as their use as a babysitter by so many of today’s modern and busy parents. Kids are not learning decent values because nobody's spending the time to teach them - not because video games tell them to be evil.
I'd like to think that I'm a productive and socially aware member of society, and yet I've played video games since I was 11 or 12. To the best of my recollection - all of them involved beating folk up, outright killing said folk or blowing stuff up. A few even involved genocide. I blame my parents for doing a decent job of parenting.
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