And Call of Duty, at 1am! I have no idea how they’re parents allow it!

You can join the UK Army at 16 but are not allowed on armed operations until you are 18.

International law bans troops from battle until they’re 18.

You don’t join the army with the specific aim to kill people, what a stupid comment.

oh ur right u join the British army that’s active in a war campaign to see the world and get a trade. silly me

Alan there are plenty of roles in any army that are not front line fire zone jobs. I would wager that some soldiers have never fired a bullet in anger in their life.

Alan that’s not what I said, my point is that you cannot make a comparison between a video game which has the aim to kill with membership of the army. It ridiculous suggestion that people join the army, British or otherwise, with the specific aim to kill people.

By your logic, Call of Duty is the same as porn, so all men and women in the army are pornstars!

And at the childish comment, the average age of a gamer is 35 which makes sense really because gaming caught on around the mid to late 80′s so while there is new gamers playing everyday, there are still plenty that have gamed for years.

1. The sales assistants job is at risk if they are found to have sold a 16/18′s game to a minor. Perhaps you look younger then your age! (You’ll be glad of this when you’re 40)
2. A passport is a form of ID…. Or bring an adult.
3. Age ratings are there to advise suitability. The exact same way films in a cinema have ratings. Like it or not, they’re there for the protection of children. And those girls may not be a suitable age to be reading that book, but it is different than if they were ‘watching’ the physical act as described in the book.

I’m no prude, I’m well aware that young people can access material totally unsuitable to their age via the net, but that doesn’t mean we forego putting restrictions in place. I know not to walk to close to the edge of a balcony, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want a railing there!

You might want to rethink that last comment. Exposure to violent media has been shown to cause increased levels of aggression, increased interpretation of events as both more fearful and threatening and overall physiological and emotional desensitization to the effects of Violence. Just check out some studies by Murry, Anderson, Carnagey and Bushman

1. I’m not gonna lie, I do have a young face but I’m also 6’4″ and had a beard at the time. A bit of leniency should be given in certain situations. I would be surprised if a mother of a 15yo would be raving mad if they were sold a 16 game. But then again……..

2. It’s not the smartest idea to be carrying around a passport and parents aren’t always available etc. Maybe an age card for teens is in order.

3. It really depends on the person and how they can handle violence, sexual scenes bad language etc.
For example, if someone likes old war films and wants to play a game like COD World at War but is underage its unfair for them because the films are tv or online and they can’t fully experience the genre in their mind.

That’s just my two cents.

If parents want their kids playing video games that are above their respective age then so be it. They can purchase the content for their kids. What this legislation does is prevents young individuals from purchasing content that they shouldn’t be allowed to.

Legislation is just another way of saying crap. As in crap rules by a crap Govt.

This guy tends to disagree http://ithp.org/articles/violentvideogames.html of course there is probably somebody else that will contradict it but I do tend to agree with him for children of a young age playing 18+ games.

Huge correlation between exposure to violent media and real world violence. There is even a direct casual relationship between aggression displayed as adults and the amount of violence they were exposed to as a child.

i agree with you olivia it is hard when you are a parent and have certain rules but other parents have a more relax approach i do believe computer games do affect children so this age restriction is good but the parents have to say no and stick to that decision and derek and king alof i agree with you there are a lot of idiot parents who do not see the bigger picture but will after awhile when there child is becoming aggressive and they do not know how to control them it is so sad to see these days what a child wants they get