by Pete Davison

Created on: March 06, 2010

As most followers of the video game industry will happily tell you regularly, video games have come a very long way since their humble beginnings on a black and white screen making "bleep-bloop" noises. One might even say that they have made greater progress than films have in a shorter space of time, which means that, as a medium, it's had to grow up fast.

One of the side-effects of this rapid adolescence is the diversification of "gaming" as a medium, an art form or whatever you would like to call it. Whereas once games were just that - competitive challenges either between several people or between man and machine - nowadays, it is perhaps a disservice so some creations to call them "games", when so much effort has gone into, for example, making them an interactive story.

Part of this diversification is the gradual realisation of the industry that "games" aren't just for kids any more. The kids who grew up playing Pong, Space Invaders and Pitfall are all now grown men and women, and just as you wouldn't sit a 30-year old man down in front of CBeebies (not unless he was really, really hungover), games have had to evolve a grittier, more mature edge at the same time. This is where the so-called "controversial" titles such as Grand Theft Auto, Gears of War, Heavy Rain and numerous others have sprung from - they're not games for kids, and the age ratings on the packaging clearly shows this.

When someone comes out with the "too much, too soon" argument, it's often with these games in mind. Most people would agree that giving Grand Theft Auto to a four-year old is inviting a lot of awkward conversations about crime, bad language, sex and drugs which should probably be saved for when the child is a little older - but it's not an "all or nothing" kind of scenario. Just because you're giving video games to your child doesn't mean that you have to allow them access to adult entertainment - do you do the same with your TV? Do you do the same with reading material? Do you do the same with DVDs and audio CDs?

The answer to those questions, for most responsible parents, is a resounding "no". But, to some of these same parents, the interactive nature of video games is seen as a golden opportunity to have an electronic babysitter, allowing the parents to get more done for themselves. It's an ugly, workaholic culture we live in nowadays, and anything which helps you survive that is often embraced without any thought for the consequences.

There can be a happy medium, though. Children can enjoy video games as one of their many forms of entertainment. Parents shouldn't feel guilty about allowing their children access to interactive entertainment. What parents should do, though, is take an interest in what their children are doing. They should talk to their children about what it is they are getting from the experience, they should take the time to research the games that their children are interested in using websites such as the ESRB and WhatTheyPlay, and, most of all, they should not be afraid to use their parental authority to take control and say "no".

So are video games marketed at young children a bad thing? Absolutely not. But should parents take more care in what they allow their children to do, and how long for? Most definitely.

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