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Safety

Children And Gaming

Are Video Game Predators After Your Children?

Here I am trying to get my girlfriend to let me play Halo 3 online with her 8-year-old son and USA Today has to go and release another sexual predators using video game consoles to get to your children story. The story, titled "Predators use gaming consoles to 'get foot in the door'", details several cases in which child predators used games like World of Warcraft and Halo to gain access to children, and the efforts of law enforcement officials who are now forced to play video games undercover to try and catch criminals.

"Child predators are migrating from traditional methods to alternate media," says Detective Lt. Thomas Kish of the Michigan State Police. "They are going to places where children are."

This is the kind of story that would be easy to dismiss as anti-gaming propaganda - were it not entirely factual.

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Safety

Games Help Prison Guards Guard Better

The Cumberland Times News of Maryland brings news of a tour two children recently took of the North Branch Correctional Institution, a maximum security prison. They were with their parents, of course.

During this tour they learned that video games help prison guards do their job:

From the front of a computer-filled control room inside Housing Unit 4, prison Warden John A. Rowley said Nintendo was a great tool to train today's officers. Every aspect of an inmate's cell life can be controlled by a touchscreen video monitoring system inside the control room, he said. When the doors open and close or whether a cell has water or not is up to the staff on duty.

Let's think this through. If some people say that video games help train criminals and if warden Rowley says games help train prison guards. Then... it's a wash?

A view from behind bars - Cumberland Times News. Image courtesy of Morgan-Keller Construction.


nintendo

These Nintendo Pins Could KILL YOU

Between 2004 and 2007, Nintendo were selling some small, character-adorned pins at both their Redmond HQ and Nintendo World Store. Little metal Nintendo characters, little sharp pin, you stick them on your jacket/bag/hat. Standard stuff. Oh, except for the fact they contain unsafe levels of lead. Before you plan a trip to your doctor's/lawyer's office, however, note that they're only dangerous if you swallow them, not wear them, so unless you've been snacking on lapel pins between Smash Bros rounds, you'll probably live to see the morning. If you are snacking on them, though, and would like pins less likely to cause serious health issues, Nintendo are recalling them and offering free replacements. Details below.
Character Lapel Pin Recall [Nintendo, via GameSpot]

parents and children

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. More »

parents

Video Game Safety For Parents

When I read the headline " Internet and video game safety: Ten practical tips to help protect your children" over at the UK Telegraph website, I was certain I was about to read some overblown warning about the dangers of violent video games. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised by ten actual practical tips that encourage parents to be responsible about their children's internet and video game use. Who'd have thought?

Some video games teach children important skills, from cooperation to patience, but others really are just about gorily blowing other people's heads off. The more you understand about which games your child uses, the more you'll be able to guide their choices.
These are extremely helpful bits of advice for any parent concerned about their offspring's gaming habits. I'm not so sure parents on this side of the pond are hip to the concept of parental responsibility, but it's worth a shot.

Internet and video game safety: Ten practical tips to help protect your children
[Telegraph.co.uk]


crime

Is it Dangerous to Work at GameStop?

A Washington State GameStop employee was robbed at knife point Monday night by a man muttering to himself, Bellingham police report.

The employee told police that a "tall, very skinny white man" in his 20s was browsing in the store for about 45 minutes before taking several games to the register. After the employee rang up the games the man began to walk out of the store talking to himself. The muttering man then turned around and pulled out a small knife and demanded cash and games.

The man took the lucre and ran from the place. Fortunately, this time around no one was killed. The story does remind me that periodically we get a slew of emails from GameStop employees complaining about how very unsafe it is to work at their particular store, due sometimes to the late hours and sometimes to the one-person shifts.

I can't help but think of my brother, who worked part of his way through college back in the 80s at a 7-Eleven, he was robbed several times and eventually quit because of how dangerous the low-paying job was. Has GameStop become the 7-Eleven of this generation?

I've contacted GameStop for comment on this issue, but haven't heard back.

Young man Robs Game Stop [Bellingham Herald] [Pic from previous story]


serious gaming

Barbarians At the Game

Nick Yee had an unenviable task last week.

The Stanford research assistant and massively multiplayer online gaming expert was flown in to Denver to explain online gaming to a room full of criminal investigators, educators and internet safety experts from area district attorney offices, police departments and the U.S. Department of Justice.

Yee, whose landmark Daedalus Project continues to study behavior in MMOs, hoped to present to these members of Qwest Colorado Coalition for Online Safety a take on online gaming that they may not have heard before: That it can actually be good for you.

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nintendo

Nintendo's Anti-Baby Seal

The deadly flying wiimote epidemic of 2006 very well could have been avoided if only Nintendo had maintained the same safety standards it had back in 1982. Kotakuite Astrofox has unearthed evidence proving that the venerable company once dedicated itself to saving its products and customers from the vile infant scourge.
I just found my original donkey kong game and watch and it had all the documentation with it. You thought Nintendo of 2007 was paranoid, try Nintendo 1982. Stickers specifically designed to keep babies from breaking open the unit, and feasting on the sweet sweet batteries inside.

Back in '82 I may have been only nine years old, but I still remember the horrible things the packs of roving babies would do...the atrocities. Whole car batteries devoured as onlookers cried out for something...anything to protect their precious power cells. I shudder to think what the world would be like if Nintendo hadn't discovered anti-toddler sticker technology. We owe them a debt we can never repay, so the next time you take a wiimote to the forehead, you just thank your lucky magic stars that the batteries inside are safe.

wii

The New, New Wii Strap

Play Nintendo and Go Nintendo are both reporting on what appears to be a third Wii remote safety strap. More »

nintendo

More Wii Safety Updates Coming From Nintendo

Following news that Nintendo is issuing a "corrective action" to replace defective or underpowered Wiimote straps come details on Nintendo's future plans to better inform consumers. More »

wii remote

U.S. Safety Commission Keeping an Eye On Wii

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has reviewed the new straps for the Wii remote but plans to keep an eye on future issues, a spokeswoman for the commission told Kotaku. More »

clips

Clips: The Wii Safety Manual Gets a Narrator

Someone's taken the scans that poor Ashcraft slaved over and added a hilarious voice-over. Of them, I think I like the Buzz Lightyear bit best.

nintendo

Nintendo Sends Wii Safety E-mail To The Masses

Nintendo cares about your safety. They also care about you not beaning your little sister in the head with your Wii-mote and grinding through the impending lawsuit. That's why the company is going to great lengths to cover its ass as illustrated by today's mass e-mail, instructing mouthbreathers everywhere on how to keep their Wii controllers from rocketing at people and expensive electronics. More »

wii

The Lost Wii Safety Pages

Brian Ashcraft and his Japanese Wii Safety Manual shenanigans still has me laughing. More »

wii

Nintendo Comments On Broken Wii Straps

Maybe this has been up since launch day, I'm not really sure, but a reader just sent us a link to Nintendo's safety information page for the Wii which prominently discusses the issue of flying Wii Remotes. More »

clips

Gamefest 2006: I Was There, I Saw It!

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