News

Educator Claims ‘Damning Evidence’ Against Games, Offers Little

An evenhanded study last month about kids and schoolwork found “nothing evil about video games”, but not a Kansas educator, who bootstraps those findings to his claim that games are responsible for the widening achievement gap between boys and girls.


January 25, 2010
In Real Life

‘Wii Dad’ Columnist Pens Response To Kotaku Commenters

“It’s clear most of these commenters can’t seem to conceive of a world where everyone doesn’t play video games all day long,” writes Chris O’Brien, whose column about returning a Christmas-gift Wii summoned a tempest of gamer fury .


December 20, 2009
News

Games Watchdog Looks Back Before Turning Out The Lights

As reported earlier, the National Institute on Media and the Family, whose key funding dried up in a terrible economy, is closing. Founder Dave Walsh talked with the Associated Press, and reflected on his organisation’s influence in the industry.


November 22, 2009
News

The NIMF Is No More

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.


July 13, 2009
News

Xbox UK Boss: The 360 Is Not A Child’s Toy

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.


June 30, 2009
In Real Life

Video Game Question For The Advice Columnist

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?


June 29, 2009
In Real Life

Yet Another Video Game Timer Doomed To Fail

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?


May 20, 2009
In Real Life

This Horrible Device Will Automatically Switch Your Consoles Off

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.


February 4, 2009
In Real Life

Detoxing the Electronic Village

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.


October 30, 2008
News

Parenting To Help Parents Parent With ESRB Rating Checker

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.