An interesting twist on parenting with violent video games

[Jorkapp]

Globe and Mail: Family and Relationships
"The Art of Playing Nice"

When 13-year-old Evan Spencer wanted to play the ultraviolent video game Call of Duty, his parents gave him the green light, on one condition: He had to follow the Geneva Conventions. Sarah Boesveld reports

Four times a week, 13-year-old Evan Spencer and his buddies rush to their Xboxes to play Call of Duty, the violent, popular sniper game set in the Second World War.

While some of his friends shoot enemies long after they're down, or spray bullets indiscriminately, Evan does not. He can't - or he'll violate the Geneva Conventions his parents insist he follow, and be cut off from the game he so dearly loves.

"To remember it, it's basically common sense," says Evan, explaining the conventions while slurping a chocolate milkshake at a restaurant near the family home in Etobicoke, Ont.

"Someone surrenders and you don't just go and kill them anyways."

Article Link

 

[North Star]

Um...ok...having played that game, I don't remember any points where shooting somebody would be a violation. I don't recall a single civvy or protected person running around.

Lol..maybe the parents have a very pacifist-oriented view of the Geneva Conventions, and think you can't shoot at the enemy until fired upon!

 

[Smirnoff123]

It must be quite fun for him to play.....
How would his parents know what he's doing while he's playing anyways?

 

[aesop081]

How would his parents know what he's doing while he's playing anyways?

because a real parent pays attention to what their kids are doing. I let my kids play COD but i sure as heck take a look at whats going on.

 

[Greymatters]

Sounds like good common sense...

 

[MedTechStudent]

Don't, get it.

I mean North Star is right, where in this game do you even have a choice?  In single player you usually don't even know where anyone is until they are shooting at you.

Like are we talking about the 1864 first Geneva convention?  Cause I'm pretty sure that was spawned from some swiss businessman who had to watch 40,000 French and Austrian troops die on the battlefield without care.  Sort of hard to tend to the wounded on the battlefield if they just dissolve away 30 seconds after death. 

 

[Pelorus]

I'm not sure that I would classify Call of Duty as 'ultraviolent', but YMMV.

 

[Good2Golf]

Um...ok...having played that game, I don't remember any points where shooting somebody would be a violation. I don't recall a single civvy or protected person running around.

Lol..maybe the parents have a very pacifist-oriented view of the Geneva Conventions, and think you can't shoot at the enemy until fired upon!

If you shoot someone and they are incapacitated, not killed, but no longer able to engage you, the are considered hors de combat and cannot be legally engaged, IAW the Geneva Convention, Convention III, 12 Aug 1949, so in the case of the game, if an enemy is felled, yet not killed, the parents would expect that the kid would not shoot him again as that would be against the Law of Armed Conflict in general and the Gen.Conv. in particular.

 

[CEEBEE501]

In COD all "incapacitated" enemys are reaching for a gun or still have one in their hands. So that really dosent work.  :-\

 

[chris_log]

This is like telling your kid he can play Grand Theft Auto, but that he has to obey the law in the game while he plays it.

:

 

[Mike Baker]

It's pretty silly in my opinion.

In COD all "incapacitated" enemys are reaching for a gun or still have one in their hands. So that really dosent work.  :-\

Exactly!

 

[I_Drive_Planes]

A better idea would be not letting him play the game at all.

I just finished reading "On Combat" By LCol. Dave Grossman (A psychology professor from West Point).  He has a few chapters in this book about the effects of violent media on adolescents.  He also has another book (the name escapes me now) devoted entirely to the subject.

To make a long story short, movies and video games are rated based on age for a reason.  The effects of violent media on a young mind are quite startling and profound, and not in a good way.

 

[M Feetham]

I think that it is an interesting way to try and teach a child something about "ROE", for lack of a better term. However like someone else mentioned, on the game even the incapacitated are still shooting. You never get the chance to take prisoners or tend to wounded. Might be interesting if you did though. All in all, I applaud the parents, at least they are trying, it's more than some people do.
Feet