A woman who seemingly does not want take any responsibility for parenting her darling child has blamed video games, specifically Fortnite, as her son has stopped socialising and turns in to a moody brat when she stops him from playing the game.
The mother, Suzanne, has just been on ITV’s This Morning and called for the game to have a higher age rating, despite the game having a 12+ certificate and her son only being ten years old and therefore should not be playing the game in the first place. If she’s ignoring the current age rating why would raising it make any difference?
Phil and Holly have been taking calls from other parents along with psychologist Emma Kenny who is advising parents to limit their children’s gaming time, pay attention to the age ratings, and make sure their is a balance of family activities. Maybe Suzanne should take that advice.
We should also point out that consoles have parental controls.
Source: ITV / Digital Spy
tactical20
She’s saying he’s a shitbag when he’s not playing games, so your parental advice isn’t really much help.
Stefan L
… which might be down to how much gaming time she’s allowed him in the past, and with games that he’s not old enough to be playing?
tactical20
I’m not defending her. I’m just saying hindsight advice from people who clearly aren’t parents themseves is not really helpful.
Nate
I’m a parent. I know that you need to limit the amount of time kids spend playing games/watching telly (or iPad in my little boys case), and if they have a tantrum that is more reason to crack down, not cave in and blame the game (or iPad!).
Avenger
I love the sudden realisation that being a parent actually means educating your child when and where necessary, restricting what they’re exposed to until they get to an appropiate age.
Fortnite, or any game for that matter, is hardly accessible to all and sundry or being force on children, so it is up to the parent to take action.
This said, isn’t this kind of what This Morning does anyway. Yeah, there are people who know better, but some don’t (there’s no manual for being a parent), and they can explore the issue. It feels to me like a dense topic, a non-issue, but to others it might be useful, I guess.
homerjnick
So if your kid is a shitbag (a ten year old who is not getting his way) instead of tackling that problem it is the games fault?
Just WTF? If my kids are moody about me telling them to get off their tablets or PS4 I just say well you won’t get to use them tomorrow and they are then fine.
Broken Britain…twits breeding and lacking utter common sense as to everything not least parenting.
If you need a license for a TV and a gun and used to have for a dog I’m all in favor of getting a license to prove your going to be a responsible parent! :)
zb100
I honestly thought this was going to be another Trump story.
ron_mcphatty
It will be, although he’ll be talking about the ten year old English boy that killed his mother because he was playing too much Grand Theft Fortnight. Trump will go on to support parents who wish to sue their children for killing them and then counter sue the parents on behalf of the NRA. Just give Fox News a few hours to catch up, they’ll get there.
Crazy_Del
I want a week of statistics from her son on Fortnight and Suzanne for Social Media such as Facebook and Twitter….
Also ‘endangering our teens’ since when did the age of 10 and up classed as tennagers? Surely that would be 13 and up
He’s ten…. he’s just a kid!
Its the parents job to monitor for child behaviour and to look out for age restrictions.
Not the game!
Tony Cawley
Yep, I can confirm parenting is tough.
My boy is 8, he plays Fortnite. I’ve deemed it acceptable for his age regardless of the rating, it’s cartoon graphics, not gory, he plays with boys his own age and I monitor all his communications, including voice and text.
Thing is, he would play the game all day every day if I allowed it, which I don’t. It as addictive for him, very addictive, but it needs restrictions from the parent (me).
That’s where it gets tough, that’s where the arguments occur, that’s when he gets the hump, but it’s for his own good so I restrict his use.
Parenting is indeed very tough.
tactical20
Agreed. The 12 rating is kinda bizarre imo. There’s very little difference in terms of maturity between a 10 year old and a 12 year old generally speaking.
This woman doesn’t have a problem with it’s graphic nature, it’s how addictive it is, which is something that effects players from 8 to 88!
I’m not defending her. I don’t blame the game. I don’t know what the solution is, if there even is one. People get addicted to all sorts, at all ages, and when they don’t get their fix, they get grumpy. Just ask my wife when she can’t get on Facebook for a few hours!
The Lone Steven
ALso known as the cba method. Here is a very, very simple solution to it. Sit down as it may knock you off your feet. You ready? PAY.ATTENTION.TO.THE.BLOODY.AGE.RATING
What? That would mean being responsible and accepting that you ignored it on purpose then get surprised that a game that is NOT DESIGNED FOR KIDS! is actually NOT KID FRIENDLY!? Oh god, I sound like the daily mail. I mean, i was being sarcastic but the cap locks makes me sound like the daily mail. I… I think I’ll go fornicate myself.
It really peeves me off when parents expect games or tv etc.. to be parenting. Ok, this is for teens but *gasp* maybe, there are other issues leading to the kid’s change in behaviour. I mean, it’s not like that kids can be vicious shits towards others or that school can be hell on earth at that age. No. Let’s blame videogames!
Online socialising will expose people to bastard coated bastards with a bastard core.
JR.
I see this A LOT… Bad parents who let their kids rule the roost because they’re afraid they might upset them. Stop trying to be friends with your kids and be a parent. Raising well-rounded kids is the hardest job in the world and so many are unqualified for the role. Like this Mung bean.