One of the complaints parents often levy against videogames is the amount of time that children spend playing them. Now, when I was a kid, my parents set clear boundaries as to when it was appropriate for me to play and for how long. But for some parents who may not choose to take full responsibility for the proper raising of their child, Nintendo is considering some new options.
A recent investor conference call with Nintendo has revealed that the company has considered taking steps to allow parents more control over the amount of time games are played. Satoru Iwata explained that such features as an automatic shutdown of the system after a pre-determined length of time were considered for the Wii but decided against to prevent interrupting the experience should the player be at a particularly dramatic moment and opted instead to simply display usage data.
Iwata went on to say that Nintendo is looking into more parental control options in their upcoming handheld 3DS system, but have yet to decide on whether to incorporate the Wii's time-logging system or something more direct.
I want to say that having more options is a good thing. I just hate the idea it represents, that parents need technological solutions to control their children's behavior. Whatever happened to a nice birch switch?
Nintendo considering parental lock for 3DS [CVG]
Conrad Zimmerman is Destructoid's News Editor and home to the busiest mustache in the gaming press. An amateur historian and pop culture fanatic, Conrad possesses a nearly limitless wealth of videogame factoids and a passion for the power of games to teach, inspire and entertain. He enjoys reading, writing and turning things which should be fun into work.
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Contest:
3:30 AM on 08.04.2010
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I'm certainly going to try to avoid needing things like this for my son when he's old enough to game.
Controllers and handheld will be stored high up and will only be allowed down when i say so.
Although I'm sure it's easy enough to say.
I feel for every kid whose parent doesn't understand the phrase 'I have to save first!'
If you happen to be one of those idiots, don't bother posting. You're going to need all the time you can get to go fuck yourself.
Although in my case it was an wide assortment of household items, several of which broke... Need to be able to get away with ACTUALLY disciplining kids. I mean what the hell is time out? I never had time out, just a good leather belt across the ass.
But yah I could care less if they add in heavier parental contols, provided they don't screw with my experience.
Best case scenario, your kid will listen to you and understand there's a proper time for gaming, just like you hope.
Worst case, he drops your entire system in the toilet while he's throwing a fit over having to stop playing and go to bed. That what one of my ex's 6 year old brother did when I was in tenth grade. The best part was, his parents punished him by not getting him another system and made him save up enough money on his own to buy one. I think he was 10 or 11, by then.
I think there are some heavy definitions being thrown around here without people having a realistic view of what is required for good/bad parenting.
@ramminchuck
Could you care less or could'nt you care less? I can't make out if its important to you or not.
How long they play isn't the point; the point is that they don't do what their parents tell them, which is BAD.
As far as parents go, I'm with Conrad. Crazy new-age parents with this "time out" nonsense. My (black) family's version of "time out" was timing how long you remained unconscious after getting knocked out. Needless to say, it made me an upstanding citizen. =)
"those of us who don't have children and wouldn't give a fuck even if we did."
"you're obviously too stupid to be allowed to have children."
HPV - dude, I think you don't give enough of a fuck to have children.
You need to teach them to respect your decisions, not have something automatic that forces them to abide by a pre-determined decision. Too many people use games consoles/TV as a babysitter as it is, this trend of automatic parental control is simply removing the respect from the situation.
My kids will be taught to respect me, hell I have to shout at my boy already sometimes when he throws a babba-rage-fit, and he's only 7 months old!
Computers, games, television, cable boxes, movie players, etc, etc....
All have parental controls because parents don't teach their children what is appropriate to watch and not repeat. Too be honest I'm surprised someone hasn't called out on the bullshit these so called parents are supposed to be.
But I digress, as long these game companies are covering their tracks so as not to get sued, I'm fine with. So long as the real gamer is not punished as a user.
I'm a scary and dangerous man today, due to the gaming deprivation of my youth. Please, won't somebody think of the children?
/maturity
I think gaming has the best parental control around in most games - instantaneous saves. You didn't have those that often back when many of us were growing up. Your parent(s) would allow you to get to the next checkpoint/password screen, and then you'd come off. In most games you can save at any point, now, or at least it autosaves.
Also, I like to see how addicted I am.
Thats a bit of a cover all statement dude, you can't say all kids are like that.
That's like saying all gay men are screaming queens and all Americans are burger eating retards.
Parenting is a very personal thing and most parents hate having their parenting skills questioned.
It's sad that munkee didn't use paragraphs and sentences, his points are valid and I encourage anyone who forgets how they were atschildren to read through the wall of text.
I get the impression people are nervous that the boogie man will attack any minute, and I understand that things have changed since I was a child, but to not even let your kid play in the yard is taking things too far. Parents in my neighborhood don't even let their kids walk to school. The line up in the parking lot takes hours to clear because so many parents drive their kids two blocks to the school yard. What else are these kids going to do to alleviate their boredom?
AVGN Babies
You're right, not all kids are like that. I was just saying that it isn't the actual extra hour of games they get, it's that their parents may have specifically told them to play for one or two hours and they ignored that and played for three. I would see that as bad parenting as their child blatantly ignored them, so the parents need to be more strict if this were to happen all the time.
The best way, no matter how much high-tech we become, is to sit down with your kids and talk. Don't shy away from explaining that violence is bad, and that sexual content should be avoided. That way, you can make sure your kids will end up being careful about what they play.
I am strongly against automatic shut downs and time limitations. If you can't get your kid to step away from the controller, then you're either a bad parent or you don't know how to keep your kids occupied without video games.
Let's face it: We all play games when bored. The best way to avoid playing for excessive stretches of time is to invest in another hobby. Give them enough stimulation and motivation to find another hobby.
Wow, I'm gonna have to go and sit down. My mind has been blown.
You're just as ignorant as the rest of the world.
@Ross....I don't speak for all parents but I feel parenting is about mutual respect. We were all kids once and how many of us were treated with a near adult like respect?
Just because we are the parents it doesn't mean we can't be lenient or barter, as parents we can be "cool" and say one more hour is ok as long as you blah blah blah.
If you deny a child you raise a resentful being. That doesn't mean you give in to a childs every whim but it doesn't mean we can have a jaded view of our childhood and how little we had and then apply that to this generation.
@Blahblahblahblah; See above.
How would you feel if your parents had parental controls on the SNES? N64? etc. I don't know about you, but my family was quite strict with what they deem "violent" video games.
If there had been parental controls and/or limitations, I would have never been able to play games like Conker's Bad Fur Day or Diablo on the PS1, then get excited by their sequels. Just saying.
As for handhelds, well, they can play it til the batteries wear down, after that they'll have to choose between electricity in their room or playing a handheld. I figure its going to be a while before they figure out where the circut breaker is, what rooms line up to breaker. Plus they'll have to be tall enough to reach it.
I will be a "mean parent."
Totally.
My dad still calls Playstation "that nintendo machine" :/
Parents need to lay the smack down on their kids. I had my ass beat a few times with a wodden spoon and you learn real fast! Parents now adays are backseat drivers and I see 5 year olds downtown walking all over their parents MAN UP!
Your point is meaningless to me.
"you sound like a parent who gave up on their kids."
- I have no kids.
"Just take the system away and lock it you room after their two hours are up."
- Or just let the parental lock do its job. Times change man. this statement has nothing to do with parenting. If Nintendo utilize a technology that automatically stops kids playing videogames for longer than 2hours straight, then you might as well use it. What you saying to me is the equivalent of me telling you that letting your kid use a TV controller is bad parenting! They should get up and walk across the room to turn the TV off. Thats what my grandparents had to do. Your kids will probably grow up fat and lazy!
"You have to set your rules and boundaries early. If you spoil them silly thinking video games are going to parent your kids when you're too lazy and dumb to then you'll be in a world of headache."
- Common sense?!
"Parental controls are just as worthless as age gates on web sites."
- invalid statement. read the article again.
Age gates are easy to trick.
The key is hitting your kids, not parental controls, not time out, just hit them. And taking away the power cable, or the whole console isn't a bad idea, it's actually a very good idea. It shows the child that the parent is in charge, not the parental control program on the console.
If i had a kid who had been going to school and bullying another kid, making their life miserable.. Yeah, i would probably smack my kid. I would also take my kid over to the other childs parents and sort it out properly.
But,
if you think that you should 'hit' your kids because they played a games console for longer than you said they could. shit.. you are the kind of person who will genuinely be a bad parent.
I am? That's kewl
The first half of my post was sort of in jest by the way. I don't understand how the bulling situation correlates with the current topic, video games and parental controls. But the method you suggested is the best way to go about rectifying the that type of situation...Of course something must have gone wrong to lead up to the kid feeling like he needed to make another person's life difficult for no reason, and that may reflect some "bad parenting" but who am I to judge.
When I mentioned hitting the kid i was referring to your other post where you said "The second you fall asleep that PS7 is going on, fuck you." If that were to happen then hell yeah that kid needs a smack. But again, I don't see how that would happen if the parent took the "PS7" and put it in his room or took the power cord away from the kid for the night.
Or, had a parental lock on the system, so it just wouldn't turn on.
If they're a little shit don't stoop down to their level, respect can be earned both ways. Punishments like confiscating stuff they like and grounding them are way more effective.
Basically, I just don't think fear is a healthy way of gaining respect.
I noticed this crap when I play Mario Galaxy 1, how every time you get a game over, it shoots you out to the main menu and you have to reboot, pick your file, trek your ass across the ship to whatever room you were in, reselect your level and then star you want to get (I can only guess this is a strategy to get kids to quit after losing without literally telling them to quit) or Galaxy 2 where it tells you to take a break every time you get a game over actually saying what it was actively doing in the previous game.
Here's just my opinion. I think for a hand-held game, it's kind of rediculous of a parent has to add controls to the system in order for them to regulate if your kid is playing thier DS/games or not. When my brothers would stay up hours into the night playing their game, my parents took it away from them. I don't see how that's very difficult to do? For the computer, it's a little different. Lately my parents have been having issues, and they're considering adding time blocks onto the computers, but that's a completely different thing since both parents need them for work, and they're not portable, etc. When my brothers are on when they're not supposed to be, the power is shut off when they're in the middle of the game or whatever. Sure, they're mad about it, but it's effective anyways.
I agree that maybe it could be helpful in some cases. like if a parent can't be watching their kid at the time or something.
My grandpa says how when he was a kid, it honestly wasn't all that much different (in some aspects). He'd just be up all night with a flash light and book, rather than video games. TBH, I've learned tons of vocab from video games, and they actually can be kind of nice when you're bored. So they're not all bad. I read, and have other hobbies, too, but my PARENTS (and my own curiousity about different things) help that.
I actually chewed my brothers out the other day because they're grounded all the time from games/computers, but when my parents go to work? They're on them anyways. I caught my youngest brother on at 3AM yesterday when I woke up in the middle of the night and needed a drink. I feel that they don't respect my mom/dad at all - and Respect is something I have a LOT of for my parents. I'm not sure why it's all that different for my brothers, who don't seem to give a crap, but I respect my parents more than anyones else, and as long as there's reason behind what they're doing: I do it. (And if I don't understand, I bug them and ask why, haha :P )
But yeah. I don't think it's really needed on a HANDHELD game, where a parent could just take it away. When my brothers had them at night, they just had to leave the in my parent's room before they went to bed to keep them from playing. Easy solution to the problem.
Same goes for parents.