In an interview with Newsbeat, Rockstar developer and GTA DJ Lazlow filled questions regarding the creation of Red Dead Redemption. When asked how he felt about Rockstar being blamed for violence in children, Lazlow replied, “Our games are not designed for young people. If you’re a parent and buy one of our games for your child you’re a terrible parent.”

If you thought listening to the disclaimers at the end of a commercial for medicine or reading the warning labels on the side of a cigarette pack is funny, then get a load of this.

I read the report posted on CNet by Don Reisinger which indicates that on January 7, 2009, Joe Baca, a democratic representative of California, introduced the H.R.231: The Video Game Health Labeling Act of 2009 bill to 111th Congress requesting to make it mandatory that video games that have received a rating for violence to display the following warning:

WARNING: Excessive exposure to violent video games and other violent media has been linked to aggressive behavior.

I thought it was funny. At first…

In the Los Angeles Times, writer Alex Pham reports that the San Fernando Library encourages youth to play video games and even invites them to be as loud as they like.

“It lets teens be more comfortable with the library and become familiar with librarians,” San Fernando librarian Lydia Harlan told Pham. “And it’s what kids are into these days.”

In the article, Pham reports that more libraries are turning to video games to connect with technologically savvy youth who might be losing interest in books and stories. In New York, the New York Public Library has even added a collection of books, films, music and maps about video games.

Click through for the full article and a list of recommended books…

The average gamer age is higher than it was when most of us started gaming. Content is much more mature than when the older gamers started as well. Parents, who are often gamers as well, still want to insure that their kids play age-appropriate games.

If you don’t want your kids to have exposure to inappropriate content, the only place you can really limit their exposure is in the home. Even then your control over inappropriate content in your house is still lacking to an extent. Unless your child is home schooled, has no friends, doesn’t watch TV, never goes online and doesn’t flip through magazines or the newspaper; sooner or later there’s going to be exposure to content deemed inappropriate for a child.

So with the general availability of information there’s a couple of ways to deal with the rise in mature content…

It’s difficult for the parents of a child diagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) to find ways to control their child’s disorder and help him or her live a normal childhood.

PopCap Games recently contracted Information Solutions Group to conduct a unique survey in April 2008 in which 2,728 respondents (of the 13,296 casual gamers surveyed) indicated they or someone they are caring for has a disability…

The blaring calls for tighter videogame regulations coming from lawmakers and activists around the world threaten the creative liberty that game developers enjoy. The games industry remains in favor of the advisory system currently in place instead of outright government censorship.

WhatTheyPlay is essentially a videogames review website from a parent’s perspective, offering an honest account of various in-game sequences (if any) that parents might find too obnoxious for their kids. The website is…

Sexual predators have turned to game consoles for entrapping gullible children as online gaming services like Xbox Live allow gamers to freely communicate with each other. According to a story on WLWT-TV News 5 in Cincinnati, OH, the FBI has investigated many such cases in Southern Ohio.

Law enforcement agencies have been hunting down predators in cyberspace for many…

Yahoo Tech has just posted their latest CES discovery – a new website for parents called WhatTheyPlay. Offering game advice and information to parents in the form of reviews and editorials, Yahoo points to the site’s greatest strengths: its community features (the comments sections allow parents to ask and answer questions) and objectivity. It’s a more »

According to ABC News and the National Institute on Media and the Family, Parents are helping their kids get violent games. In one of the more reactionary and ill-informed pieces the mainstream media has put out on the topic of violence in games, the ABC piece is full of quotes such as this gem from more »

A recent Radio Iowa article on Iowa State University researcher and assistant Psychology professor Douglas Gentile confirms the need for parental guidance and supervision when it comes to video games. Gentile has stated that he believes parents and guardians should pay closer attention to the ratings on game boxes when buying video games for children more »