Parents buy R18 video games for kids

By Jo-Marie Brown
A growing number of Bay parents are buying their children violent video games despite many having R18 warnings.
New Zealand's chief censor calls the trend an insult to his work and a Bay psychologist warns the games could have a bigger impact on children than violent films and videos.
Jo Reid, the assistant manager of Dick Smith Electronics on the corner of Spring and Willow streets, confirmed that an increasing number of Bay parents had been buying age-restricted games for their young children.
"I've definitely noticed over the past few months that a lot of parents have been coming in and saying to their kids `pick what you want and I'll buy it'.
"They don't actually realise what they're buying - and a lot of parents say 'Oh it doesn't matter, it's only a game'."
Miss Reid said children as young as seven tried to buy the R18 game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas when it was released before Christmas.
The game lets players sleep with and kill prostitutes, steal cars, fight gang-wars and shoot off people's heads.
"It's really quite violent. It definitely needs to be R18," Miss Reid said.
A staff member at Home Entertainment Centre on Grey St agreed it was now commonplace for parents to buy violent, R-rated video games on behalf of their children.
Sales assistant David Henderson said some parents did inquire about the extent of the violent content but most did not bother.
"I think most of them honestly believe it wouldn't really affect you unless you sit there 24 hours a day and played it and most parents wouldn't let their kids do that anyway," he said.
A survey of one shelf inside the store revealed just how prevalent violent games were.
Of the 35 Playstation games on display, 21 were recommended for people aged 15 years or older and 11 of those were R16 or R18.
Mr Henderson said the store did ask teenagers for identification if they were buying an R-rated game but that did not often happen as "kids under 15 do not usually buy games that cost $100 because they do not have the money", he said.
One mother recently bought an M15+ Star Wars game for her primary school-aged son.
Mr Henderson said the woman did ask what kind of violence was in it. "I basically said there was shooting and stuff but there wasn't as much blood as other games. She didn't care, she bought it anyway."
Bayfair's The Gamesman store manager Arian Lawley said parents often felt pressured by their children to buy an R18 game such as Grand Theft Auto because their friends had it.
"It's quite hard for parents to say no sometimes."
Mr Lawley advised parents who were worried about the level of violence in a particular game to watch it with their child the first time they played it and then exchange it if it was not suitable.
"Some parents don't seem to care, others will be quite shocked," he said.
New Zealand chief censor Bill Hastings said the parental buys were an insult to his work.
"An R18 rating on a game is just as meaningful as an R18 rating on a video." Mr Hastings said many Playstation, Xbox and computer games involved torture and vengeful killings, as well as copious amounts of blood and gore.
"If a parent sat down with their 13 or 15-year-old for an hour or so to watch them play these R18 games, they would probably regret the purchase."
Mr Hastings said that when something was rated by the Classifications Office it was done to prevent those people who were likely to be harmed from seeing it.
"It means we've decided that it's likely to injure the public good if someone under the rated age uses it."
He added that just because something was termed "a game" did not mean it was meant for children.
"Many of these games are aimed at adults."
Tauranga clinical psychologist Hans Laven said research indicated watching R18 video games or movies could de-sensitise children to violence.
"They can have difficulty clearly distinguishing the fantasy world from reality."
Mr Laven suspected that interactive games where players actually had control over who got hurt or killed had a bigger psychological impact than watching graphic movies.
"There will be an increased risk that a child might act out similar behaviour and have fewer protective boundaries."
He also criticised parents' actions in breaching R18 rules in front of their children as it could promote apathetic or rebellious behaviour and "contempt for social norms".
additional reporting NZPA