parenting
News
The NIMF Is No More
5:00AM Owen Good | The National Institute on the Media and the Family – whose annual report cards were more fair and reasonable than such an Orwellian name might imply – will close at the end of 2009 after 14 years of watchdoggery. More »
News
Xbox UK Boss: The 360 Is Not A Child’s Toy
1:00AM Owen Good | In an interview, Neil Thompson, Microsoft’s regional Xbox director for the United Kingdom, says console makers have a responsibility to educate the public on the meanings of game ratings and the ability to restrict them. More »
Culture
Video Game Question For The Advice Columnist
7:00AM Stephen Totilo | An eight-year-old boy’s parents are concerned about the violent games enjoyed by their son’s friend, who often invites their son over. They don’t want to nix the friendship, ban gaming during visits or question the other parents. What to do? More »
Culture
Yet Another Video Game Timer Doomed To Fail
5:00AM Owen Good | A Minnesota inventor has invented an invention that inventively shuts off power to game consoles once a parent plugs in and password protects a time on its timer. Haven’t we heard of this before? More »
Culture
This Horrible Device Will Automatically Switch Your Consoles Off
5:30PM Luke Plunkett | Once was a day parents had to do their jobs, and manually enforce the amount of time a kid spent playing on a console. Now, all they need is the GameDr. More »
Culture
Detoxing the Electronic Village
12:20AM Brian Crecente | Video game use among children is, if you happen to be a parent, a worrisome issue. Even I worry about it with my own son. More »
News
Parenting To Help Parents Parent With ESRB Rating Checker
6:20AM Stuart Houghton | The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) is joining forces with child-rearing journal Parenting to help confused parents get a handle on what games are suitable for their children. The partnership will see Parenting.com host a series of articles explaining both the ESRB rating system and the parental control options that can help prevent kids playing age-restricted games. The site will also offer a ‘Video Game Safety’ search widget that will show the ESRB rating for any of the 16,000 games in the system’s database. “Video games are actually among the easiest of media for parents to control,” said ESRB President Patricia Vance, “and for the readers of Parenting it just got even easier.” For a full explanation, presented using the medium of the press release, hit the jump. More »
Parents Let Kid Drop Out of High School to Focus on Guitar Hero
12:00AM Owen Good | I realise this pours gas on the bad parenting flames of yesterday, but holy crow, I can’t not show you this story. Yesterday reader tooji tipped me off to the story of Blake Peebles, a 16-year-old in Raleigh, N.C., whose parents have let him drop out of school so that he can focus on a professional gaming career via Guitar Hero. Blake convinced his folks (that is, “We couldn’t take the complaining anymore”, said his mum) to let him drop out last September. They hired in-home tutors to continue his education there, at least, but there’s no doubt priority number one is Guitar Hero. There’s a vaguely defined goal of Blake playing it professionally, either through Major League Gaming or by winning prizes in a national and international competitions. But so far he’s only made about $US 1,000, most of that value realised in meals and other freebies won at local competitions. The other pro gamer the reporter contacted for this story said he’s cashed in about $US 25,000 in his entire career.
