I literally face palmed when I saw this rating. I understand it has language in it (all you have to do is turn down the volume, and plus, your children probably hear more bad language in school than ...
FreedomFromCensorship’s profile
What My Kids Love Now
Modern Warfare 2.
House Rules
When the Kids Are Asleep…
My Biggest Challenge Is:
Titles You’ve Reviewed
Game: Crysis
I rate this titleonand give itYou've got to be kidding, Common Sence Media. Get a grip.
Game: Left 4 Dead
I rate this titleonand give itValve Does it Again, Left 4 Dead Leaves you Pumping with Adrenialine
Valve never ceases to come up with great games, and Left 4 Dead is no exception. Fast-paced zombie survival action, gritty, dark environments, and intelligent AI keeps you on your feet at all times. ...
Game: Call of Duty: World at War
I rate this titleiffyand give itPlay Call of Duty 2 for a more enjoyable WW2 experience. World at War is broken.
Why is call of duty 4 so much better than this? First off, the weapons are balanced correctly in COD4 (in World at War, why the heck does a semi-auto M1 Garand take 5 shots to kill when a fully ...
DVD: Anchorman
I rate this titleonand give itPretty good!
Hilarious for kids over 13!
Game: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
I rate this titleonand give it- My highlights are:
- Easy to play
A modern classic, A must buy for anyone over 12!
Disregard what you parents have heard about this game's violence and nudity, blood can be TURNED OFF if you so wish (but even with blood on their hardly is anything to see). Their are some scary, ...
Game: WarCraft III/WarCraft III: The Frozen Throne
I rate this titleonand give itCommon Sense Media, are you out of your mind? Did you actually play this game?
Kids could play this game! Their is no reason this should be only for 17+ and up? Have you guys actually PLAYED this game? You obviously haven't by what you have rated it to be. I have seriously ...
Website: DoSomething.org
I rate this titleonand give it- My highlights are:
- Educational
Bleh...boring site, not very interesting. Good intentions though.
Even if it has good intentions, it would never keep a kid interested in it for more than a few minuets.
Game: The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
I rate this titleonand give it- My highlights are:
- Good role models
- Easy to play
If you can get your hands on a N64, you MUST play this game.
For its generation, it's one of the best video games ever made. The quests and missions are incredibly fun, and all sorts of secrets and hidden items will keep you playing for hours. Violence is ...
Game: Mirror's Edge
I rate this titleonand give it- My highlights are:
- Good role models
Short, but Fun and Unique.
If you love swinging from building to building, climbing massive towers, balancing on pipes hundreds of feet off the ground, then this is the game for you. The story is alright, but the game's ...
Music: THE E.N.D (Energy Never Dies)
I rate this titleonand give itAlright, not my favorite type of music, but interesting and cool.
I'm just wondering how music tracks that talk about sex and dildos can be 15+ but video games talking about similar things get 17+? (I know it has to do with visuals...but your mind is producing the ...
Website: Bing
I rate this titleonand give it- My highlights are:
- Educational
- Safety isn't an issue
- User content is age appropriate
Hey Guys, lets rate a search engine 17+ because you can find porn on the interent! (Horrible Idea)
Really? Why not rate Google 17+ then? Common sense media, you've done it again, in a bad way. This is just another search engine, i like the video preview features, but it's not much different ...
TV: South Park
I rate this titleiffyand give itMy concerns are:- Excessive violence
- My highlights are:
Spot on humor, and suprisingly (some) good messages about our Society.
Its what every parent dreads hearing. Their kids begging, on their knees, saying "Can we watch South Park?". I remember asking this many times over, but now that I have my own access to the shows, ...
Comments You’ve Made
- Article:
Full-Frontal Awkwardness
Your Comments:In the words of Charlie Brooker, an awesome British comedian who criticizes media and big companies; "The Human body is the single most offensive thing in the universe". Of course referring to our parents' generation who all apparently think we are born with clothes on. More sexually related material should be presented to older kids and teens, though, which I understand, but even as a 17 year old my mom apparently thinks I have not gone through puberty.
- Article:
Should You Read Your Kids’ Texts?
Your Comments:If you hate reading long paragraphs, here is the basic idea (basically the same thing cross_breed said: how about you parents TEACH your kids morals, values, how to avoid predators, etc. instead of cornering them and attacking them with ridiculous life-limiting rules. Assuming your kid has a brain, they can think for themselves and remember these rules, apparently some parents think minors have absolutely no though process and cannot defend themselves, and they have to monitor their lives, breath by breath. I really think it just all depends on the overall maturity and behavior of your kid around you or your family. My mom still seems to think she can control me, although I think its just a case of her trying to cling onto me as I grow older even though I'm just, if not more mature than she is. If you first of all inform your kid about predators who might try to contact them, then they will be able to spot most of them and avoid them. What I hate is when parents complain of this, but yet they have never taught their children to watch for people who might try to lure them in in the first place. By the time most kids are 15, 16, they are almost fully able to take care and defend of themselves for the most part. I've texted messages to my friends that most parents would probably consider "rude" or "Not appropriate" because they contain so called "bad words", but reading texts just to make sure your child is is being squeaky clean in absolutely everything they say is useless and over-controlling, nobody is perfect, and that would just be useless because school (and life in general) is filled with people who might say a bad word or two. Even the most maturest of kids are probably going to swear or make "rude" jokes with their friends. Its what teenagers do, oh and adults do it often too, just not in the presence of kids so they don't look like the hypocrites that many of them are. On the occasion that my mom did check my phone, she would question me as if I had committed a crime, and make me pretty much try to tell her everything about every little worthless detail, even though in my personal beliefs she has no right to my personal life and what I like and don't like, unless I talk with her myself about it (which I have before several times). I can't go anywhere or do anything without her towering over me with her nose in everything. She asks me stupid questions (this is more in regards when she checked my ipod touch) like "What is this?", when she clearly knows what it is she's looking at and just wants me to explain something because she thinks she's so high and mighty, (most of these things she would ask about where just simple games and photos of me and friends, and for some reason I guess she can't comprehend me having a open social life where I actually think for myself and gather my own beliefs. She thinks that I'm always hiding something dark and evil (and in her closed, narrow-minded world, that could mean almost anything). Due to her lack of trust (and I specifically asked her multiple times if she trusted me, which she answered "yes" to in what I now know as an obvious lie), I took control into my own hands. I had decided to basically cut all of my own stuff off from her as consequence, added passwords and locked down everything I could. My father is a much more refreshing and different story, though, and probably is the only reason I'm not locked in a little room, being limited in creativity and free thought, and being fed a one-sided propagandist education through a tube. So parents, be careful to balance your own selves on how and when you check up on your kids personal lives, it could backfire very easily, especially as your kids get older. I feel really bad for katgirl9494, her parents are models for the tyrannical people I talk about, who are limiting her freedom. Its probably the closest thing to locking your child inside a closet, thinking you can hide them from the world forever, and keep them "safe". Life is about taking risks, parents. We all must take risks sometime or another to advance ourselves in knowledge, sometimes falling and getting back up is the best way to learn something new. Parents can try to "protect" their kids, but some things just go way over the top.
- Article:
10 Cool Games That Are Uncool for Kids (and 10 Alternatives)
Your Comments:*Sigh* Once again, most of the alternatives are going to leave you with disappointed kids, who will probably go off to a friends house to play these games instead of most of the alternatives on this list. Its like giving a kid expecting Lucky Charms dried up raisins instead and expecting him to enjoy it. Most of these M rated games can be played by most 13-15 year olds, and determining what is "appropriate" and not appropriate is more of something that is different with each family, depending on the maturity of the kid himself (and assuming these are target at 13-15 year olds, most of them have realized the differences between reality and fantasy, and what is right or wrong in the real world compared to the games they play, that is, if parents raise them to realize that video games are for enjoyment, not to be taken too seriously (although Modern Warfare 2 has a grave, but important undertone of the horrors of terrorism that younger kids might not understand, that is, if they dont skip the mission "No Russian")
- Article:
Gossip Girl Threesome Adds Up to New Low
Your Comments:Exactly! I've always questioned why some parents, including my own, would rather have children watch graphic violence than even the most mild of sexual situations? Just as a random example in the light of a photographer who had caught two people having sex in a clocktower recently, would you rather find that couple having sex in the clocktower, or a murdering sniper in that clocktower? Because in our twisted world, somehow a sniper who had shot and possibly murdered people would receive less of an outcry than a natural body function for the creation of life. I'm not promoting threesomes either, just saying that teens are normally going through an age where they might think and experiment sexually. I can respect that it is a sensitive topic amongst different religions.
- Article:
The 10 Most Violent Video Games (And 10 Alternatives)
Your Comments:One more thing for parents, and although its kind-of off topic, its something important to get around: If there is any movie or documentary you should ever watch, its "War on Kids". It shows the oppression that is going on within America against the new generation of young adults, and it might just open your eyes to what could also be one of the hugest factors of violence and depression among our young society, think twice before just blaming students and what they watch for everything: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nlnwm11d6II Trailer for the movie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6WXl2kAG7Q : A clip of several interviews from the movie about the school system.
- Article:
The 10 Most Violent Video Games (And 10 Alternatives)
Your Comments:-@nolemming Its not like my father didn't do those things with me either. I'm almost insulted that you would assume I had no childhood life, games just were apart of my childhood. It was on certain occasions that he let me play those games, it wasn't like I spent all my time in my room playing them all day, I grew up like any normal kid would, I just happened to play these games off and on when my father would let me. I didn't see these games as something serious and so connected to real life that I needed to worry about it, I was just having fun, heck I hardly could understand what was going on on the screen at that age. My life is fine, I'm hardly ever depressed, and If I am, I always try to get my self back into a good mood by hanging out with friends, or something along those lines. If I even needed to take anti-depressants, it would be from all the bulling I received through my school years, for years on end. It many not seem like something that would affect someone to the point of depression, but when you mix that with all the other problems at schools (control of thought, horrible rules that have no impact on education, useless homework, some with absolutely no connections to jobs in the real world), you really put a lot of stress on a child, which can greatly affect his or her mind. But did I give into this? No, I didn't. I stayed as positive as I could through it all, and that was all done during the times I was playing whatever video games I chose to buy for the most part. (Also a great thing that my parents taught me, to stay positive through everything). We like these violent and sexual games because their entertaining, and granted, you have people who will just mindlessly buy them for those tendencies, no matter how stupid or bad the movie/game/video was, but many of these have decent storylines and characters. Take for example the movie, "District 9". It was as bloody and gory as heck but it was an amazing and emotional movie nonetheless. I don't buy a game because it has sex and violence in it, that is not what I look for first, I buy a game because its actually fun to play, no matter what its rated, I'm not saying an "E" game can't be as fun as an "M" game (World of Goo would be a good example), there are many cases in which that is true, it just happens that a lot of "M" rated games are in fact better than others, some don't even deserve an "M" rating (Call of Duty 4, one of the best games to date, could have easily been rated T, it had no gore in it whatsoever, and hardly any blood). And of course there's so much more to life, these games are just what they are: games, nothing more, why would parents be so worked up over them anyway? I could understand being addicted to them (World of Warcraft comes to mind) but if parents and kids can manage time as to not allow games to interfere with your everyday life, it shouldn't be a problem. I'm just annoyed at the fact that so many parents still claim them as being built for mindless "murder simulating". They are just games, parts of the media that rakes in millions of dollars. I could easily live without them, as would many. But that isn't guaranteed to slow rising violence and crime levels that parents keep screaming about, I think its just more fluctuating than anything, as in at some points in history, violence was rampant, and in others, it lowered to a certain point. Did you know that beheadings were once a family outing during the middle ages? I think they still do public beheadings in certain countries in the middle east, as well. These are places where violent and sexual video games are banned, and yet, violence is still everywhere in these countries. On a random note: I wish CSM had a forum section, that would be nice.
- Article:
Don't Touch That Dial: Tips for Limiting Screen Time
Your Comments:I kind-of set my own time and limits. As soon as I get home from school, I start my homework and try to finish a majority of it. After than, I take a break and go on the internet/gaming/sleep/work out/walk my cats (yes, I'm weird...) or something to just get away from it. If I don't finish, I do the next chunk of homework after dinner until I want to go to sleep, which is normally around 9 or 10 pm.
- Article:
Let's Stop Inappropriate Movie Trailers
Your Comments:"I could not believe it. I went to see an R-rated movie..." What the heck were you expecting the trailers to be like in an R-rated movie? When I went to see Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (PG-13) it had a green-band "Funny People" trailer, which contained nothing explicit other than the single word "sex", which isn't really considered explicit. I think their doing their job of separating the trailers for the most part, I haven't noticed anything in most PG trailers that would be too inappropriate (most innuendo goes over kids' heads), perhaps a mistake was made in which it was given a green-band, but then later on a red-band.
- Article:
Let's Stop Inappropriate Movie Trailers
Your Comments:(Edit: Whoops, sorry for the double-post)
- Article:
Gossip Girl Threesome Adds Up to New Low
Your Comments:The thing is a lot of teens like mature sexual actions for obvious reasons. Even those who clearly know the risks of sex as a teen and plan for it later on in life when they can support a child aren't going to be immune to it, and I see nothing wrong in that. Even if a threesome is going a bit far with the idea, its nothing new to most teenager's fantasy's that they already have. Puberty supercharges your brain and body for sex, and I wouldn't think it would be uncommon for most teens to like watching this stuff. Tell me, if you are an adult, that you hadn't had the least interest in sex when you were this age, and I would highly, highly doubt that. Sex is so taboo in America that we freak out if our children see something as little as an exposed breast on T.V or the internet, and some parents even resort to putting fear and punishments in their teens for thinking something is "hot" or "sexy", apparently nudity or sex isn't natural anymore. I can agree that its stupid that Hollywood is putting out tons of horrible movies with horrible plots and nothing but sex. On the other hand, parents should be teaching their teens that what they see is not as glamorous or easy as it might seem in the real world (along with the risks of STDs and unplanned pregnancies), and to just be wary about what they choose to watch. Just about every teen likes sex, parents need to get over it and remember their own teen years (if hopefully their parents weren't screaming at them for having the same interests).
- Article:
Expert Interview: Nichole Pinkard and Akili Lee, Digital Youth Network
Your Comments:Pretty cool idea to get kids involved more in technology, especially when its being integrated in so many jobs nowadays. I just hope they're staying neutral on the subject of things like net neutrality and media, giving the risks and warning students, but at the same time not saying things like "games will make you violent" or "watching horror movies is going to desensitize you completely". My high school has College Credit classes for technology such as Animation and Graphic Design. It is a course where we can use Photoshop, Flash, and even 3ds Max to make things like advertisements, magazine covers, CG art, and short films. However, with all the budget cuts, the program is unfortunately not living up to its fullest potential by using outdated hardware and slow computers, some of which don't work (if we are so concerned with the education of the next generation of adults, the vast majority of funding of the government NEEDS to go to education, and to clean up the schools which have horrible conditions and over-crowded classrooms).
- Article:
Media for Babies and Toddlers Tips
Your Comments:Being in a technologically advanced family for the time during my young ages, I had very early exposure to computers, and rather used the computer more than watching TV. From what my parents tell me, at the age of about 3, I knew how to basically navigate a computer to a certain extent, and I was playing games (educational games, ones that helped me early on with speaking and very basic skills, I didn't start playing "real" video games like Starcraft or even the notorious Doom until about the age of 4 or 5). The education I had through the interactive programs helped out a lot by the time I started elementary school and in my early years of it, our school was receiving computers as a part of a technology learning plan, and I ended up being the one to help people with them more than anyone else (my teachers even pointed out as me for an example if students needed help). Not only that, but my reading level was higher than average for my age. Having your child learn the ways of technology early on in life is an advantage in this age of computers, and I'm not saying to just let them play games like Doom or Counter Strike at that age, but its a good idea to show them how tech works early on (TV I think is a bit outdated, and you aren't using your brain to think as much as you would with an interactive program on a computer)
