A UK School Will Report Parents To The Police If Their Kids Play Mature Games Including GTA

Fifteen primary schools and one secondary academy in Nantwich, Cheshire, have sent a letter to parents warning them that if they let their children play Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto and other mature rated games, they will be reported to the Police and Social Services.

“Several children have reported playing or watching adults play games which are inappropriate for their age and they have described the levels of violence and sexual content they have witnessed: Call Of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, Dogs Of War and other similar games are all inappropriate for children and they should not have access to them,” stated the letter.

“If your child is allowed to have inappropriate access to any game or associated product that is designated 18-plus we are advised to contact the police and children’s social care as it is neglectful.”

It should be noted that although children buying an 18 rated game is illegal, playing one is not.

“We are trying to help parents to keep their children as safe as possible in this digital era. It is so easy for children to end up in the wrong place and parents find it helpful to have very clear guidelines,” explained Mary Hennessy Jones, the head who drafted the letter.

Whilst the action of the headteacher are rather drastic, many parents completely ignore the age ratings on video games and the launch of the new generation of consoles, games are more lifelike than ever.  Whilst you could argue Call of Duty is nothing more than a digital version of the age old playground game, cops and robbers, there are some games that could really affect young minds. I’m thinking in particular of horror games, the DLC for The Evil Within gave me nightmares for a few days after.

Do you think the school has overreacted, or parents of primary school children needed reminding just how adult some games are?

Source: The Guardian / Sky 

29 Comments

  1. seems like a step too far to me.
    while i agree there are definitely games that most younger children should not be allowed to play, is it really the school’s job to enforce that?

    really it should be the parents job, but then i suspect too many don’t care so long as it keeps the kids quiet and out of their way for a bit.

    so i guess maybe the only other group of people that could do anything is the school staff.

    so, i don’t really have a solid opinion either way on this.

    but i don’t think reporting them to the police is really the best course of action.
    for one, what can the police do?
    as far as i know, the age rating only applies, legally speaking, to when the game is being sold, it’s illegal to sell adult games to children, but i don’t think the law covers them playing the games if others buy them, COD is in trouble if it does. ^_^

    secondly, i think talking to the parents if they think the games they play are a problem would be a better option.

    it certainly seems like a better idea than virtually branding the parents as criminals.
    i’d bet a co-operative relationship between schools and parents has to be better than an adversarial one.
    especially if they both want what’s best for the children.

    • Stunning round up that sums the situation up perfectly ;)

  2. Bought the original GTA with my pocket money when I was 8. Parents knew I was a bright kid and trusted me to realise it was just a game.

    You can’t tar every kid with the same brush.

    I know a few teachers that I don’t think should be allowed to play 18+ games but that’s another story.

    • Indeed,teachers dissallowed due to incapacity of said safe gene :P

    • Original GTA didnt have first person titty shows. Things have moved on.

  3. I think this is stupid, the law outside your house doesn’t allow a child to buy the game but in my house I am the law & what my child plays is my consent & the child knows better between reality & games.

    I think games are just being used as scapegoat, there is films out there that are for kids that have voilence & bad words (12A) & no one comments. James Bond has STDi & every other disease for sleeping with wvery women he sees but still is a hero.

  4. On a similar theme as this. The police and crime commissioner for Northamptonshire has said the following:

    https://www.northants.police.uk/#%21/News/25579

    Basically he want’s to introduce “Adults Only” as a new form of classification to video games. And if that doesn’t stop the incidences of children playing games that are inappropriate for them, he wants to push for banning them in a similar way to Germany/Australia.

    • Very interesting read. Part that stuck out was saying there need to be parental controls in place! They already are, parents just need to use them.

      With police and schools involved the underlining issue is really bad parenting but as we know it’s all to easy for the I’ll informed to just issue a blanket blame against gaming in general.

      Agree with some posters it shouldn’t be the schools place to tackle this issue but then again they shouldn’t have to tackle an obesity epidemic either, Unfortunately due to bad parenting they have to do this as well.

      In short, parents need educating and if they’re not fit to look after children then they shouldn’t be having them in the first place. Unfortunately this is the real cause and it needs tackling.

    • Yeah we ignored that because he’s a tit. There’s an 18 rating, 18 is adult.

  5. I honestly cannot see the issue.. I first played GTA at perhaps the age of 8? Turned out perfectly fine, and every friend i know who plays GTA no played it around the age of 10 also. I’m not sure why the school think its any of their business anyway.

  6. My initial reaction to this was **** off when i saw the news on Eurogamer. This is just pure PC brigade bullcrap. I mean, it is up to the parents to deal with this, not schools. Unless the child/children starts to show some red flags, they should not get involved. The Police and Social Services have better things to do then arrest someone for letting their son or daughter play COD. It is also hard to enforce as children tend to lend each other stuff. Surely, Energy Drinks should be the school’s main concern? As those drinks are very easy to get a hold of and is not good for under 16s.

    Social Services are very unlikely to look at any reports of children playing games like COD as that won’t be something they have the time to look into and would only do so if it was a factor into their case. Which begs the question, what does the school think will happen? Police won’t press the matter due to time and resources, Social Services won’t as they have more important things to do. This is just a waste of time for the school and a joke.

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