Should kids be allowed to play mature games?

• It's the parents' job. Their job is to "parent" the child.
• It's not the government's job. They do more than enough to stifle our growth as it is.

As for whether they should be allowed to play the games, I say yes, but only after they make it clear to the parent that they understand it's just a video game. They'll play it with or without the parents' permission, so we might as well have a sanctioned, controlled way to do it.

I have played mature games when I was underage, it is not as bad as it seems, most games are over rated anyway.

I think it should be the parents decision rather than the governments as I would let my kid play them.

It should be the parents the government shouldn't have to do everything we are to lazy to do

It should be the parent's responsibility to control what their children do. But "mature" video games can be very damaging to a child. My mum would watch Crime TV all the time when I was little. And it has caused a plethora of fears in me. Still to this day I will not walk outside when it is dark.

It depends on the age and the child's maturity whether or not someone's parents should control games. Generally, I believe that kids <15ish do not have business playing mature games. However, I have seen 13 year olds act more mature than 20 year olds, so I don't treat that as a rule of thumb.

i bet that every one who replied was a kid, here is the first answer from an adult, we don't want you winy kids in our games especially online, play whatever the hell you want offline, screw up your own preteen mind, but stay the hell away from our online gameplay

I'm not going to lie, I have played Mature games before as a child, at 6 I've played GTA (on the PS1) and I haven't ended up demented and twisted like some people would say children would end up if they have played games with such violence at such a young age. To what @Harmon Aerts said, if you don't want your kids playing these games talk to them, or just block it on their consoles or computers. They have settings for blocking games with a certain ESRB level (in the US).

If children are taught decent values by their parents, playing mature video games shouldn't matter that much. They'll know to differentiate between what's reality and what's merely for entertainment purposes. I was playing mature first person shooters, like Duke Nukem 3D, when I was 6. As violent as that might be to some, I don't think it had a negative effect on me.

I think a child should be allowed to play a mature game if the parents believe it is alright and if the child shows the maturity to be responsible with what he/she plays.