Do Game Consoles Sold In Europe Have Power Buttons?
from the dept-of-redundancy dept
As Mike noted earlier, a new EU study says that video games are good for kids. But the BBC picked up on another angle of the report, saying that games should have a "red button" parents can press to disable inappropriate games their kids are playing. That makes you wonder: if game consoles sold in Europe don't have power buttons, how do people there turn them on? Because isn't that what such a "red button" would be, just a good ol' power switch? Ok, to be fair, many consoles' power buttons these days aren't red, but still -- if parents need a way to stop their kids playing, new laws or rules to force console makers to add a "red button" are pretty unnecessary when parents already have the ability to turn the consoles or computers off. But a law forcing parents to take responsibility is a much harder sell than putting blame on the game makers.
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Filed Under: children, europe, game consoles
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Whoever wrote this is a _______
I can't believe this actually got posted, and people are taking it seriousley, I'm disappointed...
Someone should slap whoever wrote this ;-)
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Re: Whoever wrote this is a _______
If I do not want them to play a game, I do not buy it for them, nor do I let them buy it. If they are being punished, I take the powercords and put them in my car when I go to work.
Please explain what type of "easier access" a console or game manufacturer could provide?
I take responsibility for my children, how about you?
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Re: Re: Whoever wrote this is a _______
Why are my civil liberties always under assault because parents don't know how to be parents. ( I know off topic a little in this case)
When I was a kid, my mom yelling no would have been enough to make me stop breathing until I received permission let alone playing a video game.
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Re: Whoever wrote this is a _______
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Mom and dad need to stop being so lazy and take the games/console/PC away to show little Timmy who is really in charge.
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How about Americans take responsibility for themselves for once.
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Re: Re:
Because somewhere along the way, the governing population came up with the idea that it is child abuse to slap the shit out of a kid who wont listen to words or other "easy to handle" punishments like having time out, (LOL!) or having their stuff taken away. People have forgoten that children are not mature enough to handle a mature punishment, but what the children do understand is very basic, pain. Children are more likly to fear a wap upside the head, then having to waste an hour staring at a corner of a wall. And their will be people that read this post and freak out because i said, "children are more likly to FEAR", but, unfortunatly, fear is one of the best ways to control people, and one of the ONLY to control children. Plain and simple. Anyone that cannot accept that reality needs to consider never having children.
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parents need a red button in their heads
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Parental Controls are built into every current console
Games have their ratings encoded on the disk, or in the file in the case of downloadable games, and the console will follow whatever the parental setting is for that particular console and region. No 'red button' necessary.
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Re: Parental Controls are built into every current console
And If you want to know how to set your parental controls ask your kid.
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Re: Re: Parental Controls are built into every current console
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Parenting...
All of the current generation of consoles have built-in parental controls. Most of the kids playing unsuitable games have them bought for them by their parents in the first place. If parents used existing controls and read the ratings on the boxes they were buying, the issue of kids playing unsuitable games wouldn't exist.
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In addition
Technical Ineptitude.
What parent would admit 15 years ago to not knowing how to do something simple with something that they owned. Sure they may now understand HOW something worked, but they wouldn't come out and say that they were completely ignorant to its use.
Willful ignorance of the most user friendly of history's gadgets...is out and out pathetic. Parents now admit not to knowing how to operate anything consisting of more than a clock and a handle. This leads children to go out of the way to learn the intricacies of everything the parents own. Armed with this data many parents are unable to truly shepherd their insolent flock.
If a parent will not take the time to correct the child, the child will not realize consequences of action: good or bad.
After that then they become emboldened by their technical superiority over the ignorant parent they feel untouchable. Soon finding themselves in situations where they are able to communicate with the world at large unprepared to deal with people in a courteous manner(largely due to aforementioned poor parenting).
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Re: In addition
Is this a result of the dumbing down in education ?
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Re: In addition
She probably couldn't have figured out how to turn of a Nintendo, point being she never had to!
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Forcing the industry to include these pointless 'child safety' devices is merely a method of increasing the size of the bureaucracy and spend more tax dollars. Such a 'red button' is just as easily circumvented as the famous V-chip TVs. A good parent knows what their kids are watching and discusses it with them. A bad (or simply not present parent, much the same thing) does not know, make an effort to find out, or control their kids.
Having a red button becomes completely pointless if it is not used, or if the kid can circumvent it. Having a red button the kid cannot circumvent (being much more technically savvy than their parents on average) makes a product likely to be confusing and too difficult for the parent to operate... therefore making it go unused.
See it for what it is, big government justifying and mandating its existence.
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Average Techdirt Reader VS Average Parent
No matter how easy current controls are to use, they could be easier. They could be more intuitive, and they could be more pronounced. I bet the average parent (who doesn't play with the console him/herself) doesn't know that there ARE parental controls. Were there parental controls on the Atari 2600? The good old Nintendo? The Dreamcast or Playstation? If I recall correctly, there was a paper slip in the box of my 360 that said something about setting up parental controls, but I surely didn't read it, and I bet most people don't even see it.
Some parents don't game. Shocking, I know; maybe even blasphemous to the average Techdirt reader that some people don't derive any enjoyment out of using personal computers or video game consoles, but it happens. Those computer illiterate (possibly even technophobic) video game console owners would benefit from having a way to set up parental controls that practically hits them over the head with ease of use, and makes it so blatantly obvious that "THIS IS HOW YOU DO IT USER!"
Mandating it however, that's harsh. TV's, cable boxes, maybe even some DVD players have parental controls, but is it a law that they must?
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Re: Average Techdirt Reader VS Average Parent
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That's a really good idea
If you have kids, then the plants in your backyard should each have a red button. That way it would be easy for the parent to just push the red buttons and there would not be any sharp sticks for the kids to hurt themselves with.
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Red Button Parenting Skills
Discipline is typically formed out of some kind of fear and that is my thought process.
And if you are worried your child is going to call social services on you (problem there already but), go ahead and call them first, call the sheriffs dept, local police, who ever. become informed before you take the belt out and whip your child across their bottom. then snatch the chords, computer, cable tv. or better yet, turn the switch off at the fuse box. let them realize how good they have it and who is in charge at the same time.
Earn it and then earn it to keep it.
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