Another year, another Nintendo handheld packed with pornography under the Christmas tree. Last year it was a five-year-old and a used 3DS. This year it's an eight-year-old and a supposedly brand-new 3DS. » 12/27/13 2:30pm 12/27/13 2:30pm

Maybe Link doesn't need to be a young boy. » 11/08/12 2:30pm 11/08/12 2:30pm

Commenter Normalaatsra has never told his parents or brother his darkest secret: he loves Tekken. For many people this would not be a problem. So why is Normalaatsra hiding the disc from his family? Find out in today's very special episode of Speak Up on Kotaku. » 7/18/12 5:30pm 7/18/12 5:30pm

The ESRB has a fairly detailed and complex system that determines what games are marked kid-safe and which are considered appropriate for adults' eyes only. All major publishers participate in the voluntary rating system, and it is instrumental in physical, retail game sales in stores like GameStop and Walmart. » 4/13/12 11:30am 4/13/12 11:30am

The menacing black box lurking within your entertainment center just got a bit less menacing, as Netflix adds the bright and colorful "Just for Kids" to the PlayStation 3 version of its streaming video app. » 3/12/12 8:30am 3/12/12 8:30am

Attention parents of the world: GameStop is not a babysitting service. That fact was made abundantly clear to 21-year-old Kethia Dagrin-Francois of Florida when police arrested her for child neglect after her five-year-old son was found wandering the parking lot of Boyton Mall. » 2/14/12 9:30am 2/14/12 9:30am

Allegedly enraged over her five-year-old son's playing of a video game he received as a Christmas gift, Jutrina Tillman of Phoenix, Arizona, dragged the young boy into his bedroom and began to strangle him before threatening to kill him and his 13-year-old sister with a butcher knife. » 12/28/11 6:00pm 12/28/11 6:00pm

It's a delicate subject but one that will inevitably come up for any parent, and you've got to be prepared. In this age of bright and shiny high definition games, how can we force our children to play through the games we grew up on first? This is commenter Balmung's question in today's Speak Up on Kotaku. Now eat… » 12/13/11 11:20am 12/13/11 11:20am

In December of 2010, 18-year-old Alex Trowell of Idaho was on his way to visit his 12-year-old World of Warcraft girlfriend in New Mexico. Alerted by the girl's mother, New Mexico police called Trowell and had him turn his car around. » 4/28/11 2:00pm 4/28/11 2:00pm

"It's too real and too much like the Columbine tragedy," says one concerned parent regarding a video shot at Rocklin High School in California depicting students pretending to play Call of Duty with imaginary weapons. Oh come on, really? » 4/15/11 1:30pm 4/15/11 1:30pm

A Gallup survey conducted over the weekend finds that while Americans believe the greatest responsibility for keeping violent games out of children's hands lies with parents, they aren't opposed to the government stepping in to help. » 11/02/10 4:00pm 11/02/10 4:00pm

In last week's ripped from the headlines episode of Law and Order: SVU, a couple gets so wrapped up in a ridiculously fake video game that they forget who their daughter is. "This is the kingdom of Galagar!" » 9/29/10 2:00pm 9/29/10 2:00pm

Any kid can get on the honor roll, but how many can get through Super Mario Bros. without using a warp pipe? These are the sort of accomplishments any gaming parent would be proud to display on their bumper. » 9/08/10 4:20pm 9/08/10 4:20pm