Poll: Parents fear their kids playing Grand Theft Auto more than watching porn, drinking beer*

Which is the worst thing for your 17-year-old to do? Drink beer? Smoke pot? Watch porn? Or play Grand Theft Auto?

While marijuana took the No. 1 spot of worst offenders, GTA finished second in an online poll of 1,650 people by What They Play, a site that reviews games from the parents' perspective. Pot-smoking was listed by 50% of the respondents as the thing that would most concern them if their 17-year-old did it during a sleepover at a friend's house. Next were GTA with 19%, watching porn with 17% and drinking beer with 14%.

It's not a scientific survey, but it does give a provocative insight into Americans' attitudes about video games.

Cheryl K. Olson, co-founder of the Harvard Medical School Center for Mental Health and Media and coauthor of the book "Grand Theft Childhood," thinks parents see games as the devil they don't know and therefore dread it more than porn or alcohol.

"Although these findings seem surprising at first, they hint at fears parents have about video games," Olson said. "To some parents, video games are full of unknowable dangers. Of course, parents don't want their children drinking alcohol, but that's a more familiar risk."

The survey is skewed by the particular demographic of visitors to What They Play, which has about half a million unique visitors a month. About 86% of those identify themselves as parents looking for ...

... information on which games to buy for their kids, said Tom R. Byron, vice president of marketing for What They Like, the San Francisco company that runs What They Play. The rest are grandparents, aunts or uncles. Most are in their mid-30s to mid-40s.

The site conducts polls to find out what parents are thinking so its editorial staff can write content to address their concerns, Byron said. In April, several weeks before the launch of Grand Theft Auto IV, the site put up a poll asking what parents would find most offensive in a game: a severed human head, a man and a woman having sex, multiple uses of the "F" word or two men kissing. The No. 1 answer was  sex, which accounted for 37% of the 1,266 votes casted. Men kissing came in second with 27%, followed by the severed head at 25% and the "F" word with 9%.

What They Like used the results to write one of their most popular articles, "Grand Theft Auto IV: 11 Things Parents Should Know." The polls are also meant to generate discussion -- are video games as bad for children as alcohol? If so, what is it about games that's so objectionable?

"We have a motto here," Byron said. "It's 'Don't get mad. Get educated.'"

What do you think?

-- Alex Pham

Image courtesy of Associated Press

* An earlier version of this post misstated in the headline that parents were more concerned about kids playing GTA than they were about them smoking pot.

Comments

[Josie Jarvis]

My son is a high school teacher. He has one son (5) and one daughter (2-1/2). When my son was in the 6th grade he couldn't read very well. I allowed him to read whatever interested him and took him to after school reading classes. He loved "Dungeons and Dragons" so much that he took it to school and played at lunch time. I thought it was wonderful that he was reading! However, his teacher didn't feel the same way. He warned me that my son was going to grow up to be a murderer! I thought that was crazy. I know my son and he was very sweet and sensitive.

After he got out of the navy he discovered "World of Warcraft". He met his wife playing this Internet game. After they were married the novelity wore off for her, but not for him. Every night at 7:00 PM he heads to the computer for his game with a world of WarCraft friends. He even has his son hooked on it. The five year old doesn't know much else. Sponge Bob is probably as boring as Tellie Tubbies, to him. He wants swords and knifes and wants to cut off his grandmothers arms! Other than that, he is a sweet little boy.

My son does not drink, smoke, do drugs and is not into porn. He is a vegeterian and keeps in shape by running and bicycling. I think that these games should be age appropriate, but if the parents are going to be the ones introducing violence via video games, how can that be stopped?

I think that they are not only harmful to children and teenagers, but present the itch for war and violence in all people. My son joined the National Guard to become an officer. He had his own stradgies that he acquired from Warcraft that he tried to implement in training. I don't think the US military agreed.

One problem with this is that it's all fantasy. There are no dealings with real life and real people. He tends to isolate himself when he gets tired ot listening to other people talk and go to the computer for entertainment. People loose all social skills and the need for others in there life that aren't on the same track. Many people love him, but many people have been pushed away by him in favor of antimated warlords and elfs.

[Dan]

I'm 23 so maybe not so alien to video games. If you'd rather see your kid get drunk than play Grand Theft Auto, then you're a fool. And any normal 17 year old guy has seen real people having sex, not just cartoons.

[Tyler Anderson]

My dad bought me resident evil 4, a game that is rated mature, 21+. Now i still have 4 1/2 years till i can legaly buy the game. So in my opinion, if parents actually care that much what their children see, then dont buy the games for them. You know what grand theft auto contains, all of the following, so dont let them play it. The parents are the ones to blame for games that their children play that have too much violence, strong language, sexuality etc.