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Parenting

torture devices

Kids Won't Listen? Sic BOB on 'Em

Parents! Do you lack all authority to control your child's video game playing? Do you lack opposable thumbs, or an appendage suitable for TURNING OFF THE TELEVISION???? Well, fortunately for you, now there's BOB

Yes, BOB takes all the guesswork, temper tantrums, hurt feelings and, you know, parenting out of refereeing your child's time in front of the tube. Now when you tell little Johnny he has only five hours to kill hookers and drive drunk in Grand Theft Auto IV, BOB is there to show you fuckin' mean it!

As the product's website says, "BOB becomes the bad guy in screen time negotiations." That means you can get back to being the cool mom or dad! And kids! Make sure you save your progress every three minutes because YOU NEVER KNOW WHEN BOB'S GONNA LAY DOWN THA LAWWWWW. It's like Russian roulette with gamesaves!
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xbox 360

The Coolest Scary Mean Mom Gets Revenge

Being a kid is hard. Being a parent? Harder. When a 13 year-old Virginia kid intentionally broke the vacuum cleaner so he could skirt his chores and play Xbox 360, his mom took action. Mean mom action. She tells our sister site Gizmodo:


My 13 year old managed to break the vacuum....thinking it would release him from that duty. He also has a list of other chores that were TYPED up for him to do Friday afternoon....one thing on the list was done...mind you these are simple things...empty the trash, clean your room, etc. Then I go thru the cookies on his computer and find out he has been checking out porn sites. Now there is a password so he can't even get on and his my-space page has a picture of snoopy on it now. Apparently I'm the meanest mom in the world, were his words.

I'm a single mom. I can't let them walk over me or I might never get up.


Applause. Our advice, kid: Always listen to your mom and always clean out your cookies.
Xbox 360 with wireless remote [Craigslist via Gizmodo]


parenting

Times Tirade Claims Xbox is Crack for Kids

Janice Turner is a hard working mom. She can't constantly be watching everything her children do which includes watching TV, using the computer and listening to the iPod. One thing she can control apparently is how often her kids play video games, which is never since she refuses to buy her kids any gaming consoles. As a parent, this is of course her choice and more power to her for trying to get her kids to spend some quality time playing outside with other kids and the like. My parents did the same to me with cartoons. Saturday at noon the TV went off and my brother and I went outside. Getting your kids to do anything besides intaking copious amounts of media has been a problem for parents since the invention of the radio. But, as "media" grows larger there are more distractions that make it harder for parents to get their kids away from it.

This is the subject matter that Turner tackles in her recent rant/article on The Times website. Although her article is titled "Xbox is crack for Kids" she mostly complains about general media and technology and how to (or not to) regulate "screen time" for her kids and how this is a seemingly impossible task. She saves her most venomous words for video games which she attacks with vehemence in the last paragraph:

Once, such kids would be the playground outcasts, but no longer. Mine are. Because, unlike the TV-hating parents, I refuse to buy them portable gaming consoles, Xboxes, GameCubes, PS2s. These are Satan's Sudoku, crack cocaine of the brain. Even the crappiest cartoon or lamest soap teaches a child about character, plot, drama, humour, life. Playing videogames, children are mentally imprisoned, wired into their evil creators' brains. And they play them - beepety-beep - on journeys, over family meals, any minute in which they find themselves unamused.

And their parents never seem to say, hey, this is the bit where you pick up a book. Or game over, kids: get an inner life.

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parenting

Videogames Guide for Parents offers reviews, not advice

John Davison, the former editor of Electronic Gaming Monthly, has started What They Play, a website that bills itself as "the videogames guide for parents." Reading a few of the reviews already up, it seems that the site focuses on short, fairly traditional reviews with a final "moral warning" for parents. For example, on Guitar Hero III:

However, be aware that the ESRB's "T" rating for "Lyrics" and "Mild Suggestive Themes" is no joke. The songs in the game deal with traditionally edgy themes of rock music, ranging from the sexually suggestive ... to the occult

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read the box, people

ESRB Teaches Stupid Parents About Ratings

In conjunction with Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, the ESRB is launching a new ratings awareness campaign aimed at getting parents to actually read those rating labels that are so painstakingly placed on games. The Rhode Island radio and television PSAs will feature Lynch and his two children in what sounds a lot like a middle America political ad, offering general information about the ESRB's categories.

We'd prefer a campaign titled, "Get Off Your Ass And Parent," but this will do just fine for the time being. Still, we can't help but wonder, once again, why the ESRB didn't adopt the movie rating system already in place and eliminate the need for such ads altogether.


clip

Baby Meets Breakdancer Meets Street Fighter II Meets Ouch

Street Fighter II sound effects make everything funnier! But this poor, poor child. Hopefully, it came back in the next round and KO'd the dude with a Spinning Bird Kick. Pro tip: don't let your young ones go wandering around break dancers. Hence the term "BREAK DANCERS." More »

my mom can beat your mommy

My Mother, The Gamer

Some of our readers have bred, which might or might not be a good thing. But, it does give them an understanding of what gaming is, that it's not bad or evil. The Guardian points to a gaming parent post written by the mother of a 16 year-old son. It details how Super Mario 64, Halo and PG-13 rated trash talk has brought them closer. There's From the post: More »

tristan

Wired on Gaming Parents

Wired's Clive Thompson called me up a few weeks back to talk to me about how I deal with Tristan playing video games. My 5-year-old son, for those of you who don't know, has written game reviews, play tested hardware and jammed with me on Guitar Hero. More »

tecmo

Itagaki On PS3, Wii, DOAX2, His Daughter...

Ass-pinchin', booze-hound Tomonobu Itagaki sits down with 1Up and talks up a good interview. He discusses last year's console launches and is very open about Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball, which was met with a frosty reception. Standout Itagaki quote: More »

leiberman

Lieberman and NIMF Flunk Parents

Senator Joe Lieberman and NILF founder David Walsh presented the 11th Annual MediaWise Video Game Report Card today. The report card grades how well retailers and parents work towards making sure their kids are playing the right games. Retailers and console developers got the big thumbs up this year. Guess who didn't.
"While improvements have been made by the video game industry and retailers, parental involvement received an "Incomplete" as surveys showed too few parents following the ESRB's [Entertainment Software Ratings Board] ratings and parental controls on gaming consoles."

Why are parents being graded? Everyone knows it isn't their responsibility to raise their children. That's probably why they got the incomplete instead of a big ol' F. More »

sears

Sears Commercial Flouts ESRB

In this Apple-thieving Sears commercial, wee Conner tells us how much he digs like, Need for Speed, and also like, Halo and Halo 2. The latter are, of course, M-rated. More »

ps2

A Kill Switch for The PS2

Here's a product designed for over-protective, lazy parents of lazy children. Called the Game Guardian, it is a cabinet for the PS2 that is designed for people who are addicted to video games. Set the clock, and when the timer is up, the PlayStation 2 shuts off. The product is made by a British company Argos, whose website at the time of writing is down. Chalk that up to some timer going off. More »

parenting

Parenting on Video Games

There's this "new trend afoot" where video games are getting active. Fortunately, cutting-edge tech and gaming mag Parenting is all over it. In their latest issue the glossy for the pregnant set looks at four games that get your kids off their ass on on their feet to (gasp) play games. More »