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Confessions Of A Failed Gaming Parent
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I have a confession to make: My nine-year-old spent about a two weeks playing Modern Warfare 2 on the Xbox 360, and I had no idea he was doing it.
How To Protect, Not Isolate, Your Child From Online Gaming
Tea-Bagging! Salty language! Racism! There seems to be plenty of reasons why you shouldn’t let your child go online to game until they’re ready to drive.. or vote… or drink. But what about the benefits?
ESRB And PTA Launch National Parental Awareness Campaign
Those two great tastes that taste great together, the Entertainment Software Ratings Board and the Parent Teacher Association are gearing up for a big push towards educating parents about gaming ratings, parental controls, and video game safety in general. They’re going to assault the epidemic of ignorant parents with a barrage of educational pamphlets, available both online and off, covering such topics as setting up parental controls, making sure your child isn’t being solicited by perverts, and of course, the ratings themselves.
Along with the pamphlets, there will be a free webcast on the 23rd of this month at 7 PM Eastern featuring ESRB president Patricia Vance and PTA president Jan Harp Domene, and GamerDad Andrew S. Bub covering all these topics and ending with a Q&A session with the trio. Hit the jump for the full press release, which includes information on where to get your hands on those lovely pamphlets and how to participate in the webcast, the audience of which will most likely be 99% gaming press, ourselves included.
360 Family Timer Official, Jerry Rice Approves
The children at the Stuart-Hobson Middle School in Washington D.C. today got a real treat, as Microsoft Entertainment & Devices President Robbie Bach was joined by Parent Teacher Association President Warlene Gary and Super Bowl champion Jerry Rice to unveil new parental tools as part of the second year of the “Safety is no game. Is your family set?” campaign. One of those tools is the new 360 Family Timer, which allows parents to set a limit on the time their children spend gaming on Microsoft’s console. I’m sure that went over well with the kids. Also included in the initiative is PACT, which is a family contract that allows parents and children to agree on the amount of access they have online and the amount of parental involvement in their gaming life. PACT is available at http://www.xbox.com/isyourfamilyset, and conveniently crumbles into a wadded ball of paper later on whenever it becomes inconvenient for the parties involved.
Xbox 360 Parental Timer Confirmed?
Recent news via fan site Xbox Today lends more credibility to rumours that Microsoft will be including a “parental timer” feature in its next Xbox 360 firmware update. Crecente dropped word of the new restriction feature back in September, but details from Microsoft have been scarce. A TeamXbox forumite, however, found unofficial confirmation of the parental timer in a Guitar Hero III keychain, of all places, which came packaged with an informative pamphlet (the best kind). The feature is said to allow parents to “manage [time]in daily or weekly increments” and be ready for a December 2007 launch. I expect the new feature to lead to even more abusive demands for chocolate milk from mum while playing Halo 3 online and epithets delivered with speedy efficiency.
Report: Xbox 360 Parental Timer Is A Go [Xbox Today] Xbox 360 Fall Update to Bring Parental Timer [Kotaku]
Study Finds Fault In Parental Controls, Parents
Global Consulting firm User Centric recently conducted a study on effectiveness of parental controls in electronic devices. 20 parents and 20 children were gathered, with the parents asked to set up parental controls and children asked to bypass them. The results will shock you. Well not really, I just wanted to feel like the nighttime news hook story commercial voice over guy. The results are pretty much what you’d expect. Confusion about ratings and how indeed to setup the controls themselves led to a 47% failure rate on video game consoles, with lesser degrees of failure for V-chips, mobile phones, and DVRs. I take two things from these results. First, parents need to better understand the ratings systems before they start trying to restrict access to them, and User Centric needs to perform another study on parents who aren’t stupid. Hit the jump for User Centric’s press release, discovered via GamePolitics.
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