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Censorship PC Games (Games) Entertainment Games

Software V-Chip for PC Games? 435

Posted by timothy from the wait-'til-it's-mandatory dept.
63N1U5 writes "CBS news is reporting that SMARTGUARD software is releasing a new application that will allow parents to control their children's PC gaming, a-la the V-Chip for television. The new software, called WallFly, uses the ESRB ratings database to determine if a game can be launched by the current PC user, based on the parents' preferences. Parents can also use this software to set limits on when and for how long their children can play PC games."
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Software V-Chip for PC Games? More

Software V-Chip for PC Games?

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  • Well (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 25, 2005 @07:27PM (#12342970)
    As long as the porn sites are still easy to access, its all good.

    • Re:Well (Score:5, Insightful)

      by mrsev ( 664367 ) <mrsev@ELIOTspymac.com minus poet> on Monday April 25, 2005 @08:01PM (#12343272)
      Does anyone think that the kids will not be able to get round this! I mean you tell a kid there is someting they should not do and they will find a way to do it.

      On a side note maybe the parents should regulate what game the kid get in the forst place no?

      F*ck them it wont work and will just scam some cash out of the parents. My bet is that most kids will get full access privs in matter of hours and then the kids will sbe able to lock the parents out.

      Several ways round this spring to mind such as Knoppix, Dual boot, Safemode etc.....

  • Instead of having a computer chip monitor... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Nadsat ( 652200 ) on Monday April 25, 2005 @07:29PM (#12342988) Homepage
    ...why don't parents just talk to their kids?

    • Re:Instead of having a computer chip monitor... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Draconix ( 653959 ) on Monday April 25, 2005 @07:33PM (#12343033)
      Where have you been? Actual parenting is not in vogue! These days, parents have more important things to do than actually raise their kids, like driving their SUVs to Starbucks and talking on their cellphone-of-the-week, so as to assure everyone at Starbucks that They Are Trendy, thus giving their lives meaning.
    • The same reason we need cookie monster singing about cookies, see comic: http://www.pvponline.com/archive.php3?archive=2005 0408 [pvponline.com].
    • Kids don't always listen. Parents should talk to their kids and use this.
      • kids will attempt to thwart their parents' will just to do so. An expression of their independence.
        That said, I don't know what I'd prevent a kid at that age (15-16) from playing. Him playing video games beats the hell out of throwing pumpkins at mailboxes or sucking cock at rest stops. (ok those were really unrealistic examples but I'm stoned)
      • Why not just show up unexpectedly one day? If the kid is breaking the rules, lock up the entire computer altogether.
      • Are you drunk? I can't believe it. How old are you seriously? Parents should NEVER use softwares as a way of indirect authority, especially when these parents don't know how to use their computers and most kids these days know very well how to download cracks on warez web sites.
        • You are taking a very specific case. Say the average 10 year old has a 35 year old parent. That means the parent grew up in the Apple ][, commodore, dos days. Assume they started using computers then.If they went to University they may very well have used VMS or Unix there. If they had a job they may very well have learned some mainframe concepts. They know how to use a command line. They have a clear understanding of filesystems. They may actually understand so low level hardware stuff (like how d

      • Re:Instead of having a computer chip monitor... (Score:4, Insightful)

        by cgenman ( 325138 ) on Monday April 25, 2005 @08:59PM (#12343703) Homepage
        When I was a kid, I would have been vehemontly against such a thing. Any policy or any extra rules set, especially around video games, would have been opposed with all of the stubbornness a 12 year old year-of-the-horse child can muster.

        But now that I'm facing the prospect of having children myself, I'm all for it. I remember how I used to sneak out to the TV to play games from midnight until 5 or 6 AM, before "waking up" to go to class. Admittedly, those classes were easy enough that sleeping through them was no big deal, but that's what private school will be for. Estimating my time somewhat conservatively, I probably spent about 20 - 90 hours a week on videogames. This was not healthy. Instead of engaging in underaged fraternizing, getting binge drinking out of my system, experimenting with drugs, or experimenting with haxor tools before being prosecutable as an adult, I was staring at a glowing screen trying to get Mario to bounce off of a turtle shell for infinite lives. Admittedly, the average american is up to 4.5 hours of TV PER DAY, and so my consumption was in line with that.

        Hopefully any son or daughter of mine will be bright enough to serrupticiously install a keylogger and get root, but this is more about the policy than anything. 6 hours total on weekends, 10 hours total throughout the weekdays. That's a healthy amount, and that's it. More would be granted for summer vacation.

        As a gamer and a game developer, I want to have / make / show great games to / for my kids. But as a concerned parent, I want them to be using their time to develop into a complete person, full of abilities in addition to this bunch.

        Of course, if they fall under 2 hours per week, they're going to get homework. "No more music until you beat Zelda..."
        "No, the first one."
        "Yes, both quests."
        "Yes, I'm stuck in the past. You could almost call me 'a link to the past.'"
        "Yes, I know that wasn't funny."

    • Re:Instead of having a computer chip monitor... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by rm999 ( 775449 ) on Monday April 25, 2005 @07:45PM (#12343145)
      When I was 10 (12 years ago), if my parents told me I couldn't play Mortal Kombat (one of the most violent games of the time) I would play it behind their backs. Most kids I know would do something similar. My parents could have instead not bought me the game, but nowadays anyone can just download games off the internet.

      I take it most of you have forgotten what being a child is like - children won't behave perfectly if you "talk with them." Parents cannot (and should not) watch their children 24/7.

      This technology will allow strict parents, who know they can't control their kids through normal means, to easily enforce rules. I personlly would not use it, but I can see why many parents would.

      • Re:Instead of having a computer chip monitor... (Score:5, Interesting)

        by 3vi1 ( 544505 ) on Monday April 25, 2005 @08:47PM (#12343619) Homepage Journal
        This technology will allow strict parents, who know they can't control their kids through normal means, to easily enforce rules


        As long as their kid is a computer illiterate, and so socially inept as to not have any smarter friends.

        How hard is it to hit enter a few times in the NT Offline Registry Editor and reset the Admin password?

        Or, maybe make a copy of Bloody_Game.exe as Reader_Rabbit.exe (or notepad.exe, so it doesn't count as 'game time'), and execute that?

        Or, try renaming the WallFly directory and reboot so that it can't be found and autostart?

        When I was a teen, I was disassembling C=64 warez to see how the copy protection worked. Kids today aren't any stupider and won't even have it that hard! They'll simply do a Google search and find a dozen workable ways around it.

        The time installing/updating the software would be better spent just unplugging the kids computer and moving it to a family area where you can watch what they're doing.
    • Have you ever heard of children listening to their parents?
    • Have you ever tried turning off the computer, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?

      We're just so busy!

  • score! (Score:3, Funny)

    by skydude_20 ( 307538 ) on Monday April 25, 2005 @07:29PM (#12342989) Journal
    even less work for parents!

    jeez...

  • Ever hear of common sense? (Score:5, Informative)

    by OAB_X ( 818333 ) on Monday April 25, 2005 @07:29PM (#12342995)
    Its called being a parent. Dont let your little kids play M rated games, dont let them sit there for hours at a time. You can install the games to their profile yourself so that they can only play games you allow them to play.

    But we cant have that, no-one wants to do their jobs as a parent anymore.
    • You can install the games to their profile yourself so that they can only play games you allow them to play.

      I was gonna post something similar. Until I realized that those parent's who aren't aware which games their children are playing or what those games are rated, probably are the same parents who haven't a clue about profiles.

      besides, children are quite clued in, and chances are they'll figure out how to bypass this fairly easily. (i have a friend who's 2 year old figured out how to open the cd dri
      • Amusing - My 2 year old has done the same thing - in LINUX.

        That surprised the hell out of me. He knew he had to click the Kids profile in the GDM chooser, and that he had to double click the game icon.

        That little bastard is going to prove the undoing of me, I cannot keep him out of ANYTHING. He has learned how to move the damned trash cans and a stool to the back fence gate, reach over the top, and undo the latch. I had to put a LOCK on it!
        • Wow. Your gona have problems when he gets to Jnr. High and higher. He will get bored with the classes or fall into the "this is beneath me" problem that plauged Einstein (he had crappy grades). I myself am just trying to overcome this problem as it is ruining my chances of finishing college.

          When I was little, I didn't stick things in light sockets. I plugged things in, made weird kid-constructions (you know what I mean) out of extension cords and lights, ect.

          Pay close attention to keeping him motivated, a
          • You just named the highlights of my life growing up too.

            My other two sons have actually had their IQ tested, one's 129, the other 156. My youngest though, he scares me, because he seems to easily be smarter than the other two.

            I know I'm going to have problems motivating those three, just because of how far ahead they already are. My oldest son who is 9 and in the third grade is already at a 6th grade reading level. He is about to graduate to junior high books and I just lent him my copy of LOTR which h
            • Wow! Bright ones they are! It's good that you went through it, you know best what might help smooth out the ride. Just watch out for "people==stupid syndrome". As true as it can be, that really hurts social interactions.

              What's really gonna suck is how other kids (and other parents/adults) will associate the bad grades with stupidity. Don't just challenge them. I got the same grade in Calc as I did in Algebra. Engage them, get them into it.
      • (i have a friend who's 2 year old figured out how to open the cd drive, put in the disc, and play his favorite game; some Mac educational thing. If he knew that at 2, imagine what he could do at 10...)

        Must... resist... temptation to brag about Mac ease of use... must... hold back
    • Personally, my parents tried to monitor my computer use... they tried to keep me away from porn, violent video games (whooo mortal kombat) but they failed. Why? Because they didn't understand computers at all. I installed the games, I got around any method of protection they set for me... and I know I'm not alone because my friends all did the same, and if they couldn't, they asked me too.

      That being said, this program wont change that... kids will find a way around it, like they always have.

      • That being said, this program wont change that... kids will find a way around it, like they always have

        Sure, technically, kids probably have an advantage, but that doesn't mean the parent doesn't have a good deal of control. For instance, it doesn't matter if a kid can circumvent this software if they don't have the money to buy the game in the first place. It doesn't matter if they can pirate a copy of the game, if the computer is in a common area so they get in trouble when they even try to play it.

        • But then you've got the kids limited to only being on the computer when you're home. I can't speak for your current situation, but that isn't always reasonable. Asides from that, it also drives kids to their friends house who have less restrictive parents.

          I dont think its a matter of giving up, I think its a matter of being realistic. Kids are going to play violent games, they're going to look at porn, and they're going to stumble onto things on the internet that maybe they would have been better off se

    • Re:Ever hear of common sense? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by s20451 ( 410424 ) on Monday April 25, 2005 @07:36PM (#12343068) Journal
      Did it occur to you that this helps parents do their jobs without constantly spying on their children? Or would you have appreciated having your parents monitor your activities 24 hours a day? Is that what you consider good parenting?

      If Mom and Dad say no Grand Theft Auto, their word alone will most emphatically not stop a clever kid. This kind of technology is pretty reasonable in helping parents set boundaries. The kids and the parents can then talk about the boundaries that are established.

      This isn't government censorship -- it's parental censorship.
      • I agree that for once this tool really is a step in the right direction. Next time some mother sobs to the press about how she didn't know Grand Theft Auto was about stealing cars and wasn't for little kids, everyone can slap her and point to this software that would have done the job for idiots like her.
        • I agree that for once this tool really is a step in the right direction. Next time some mother sobs to the press about how she didn't know Grand Theft Auto was about stealing cars and wasn't for little kids, everyone can slap her and point to this software that would have done the job for idiots like her.

          And then we can slap the public school system for not teaching her the meaning of the words "grand", "theft", and "auto".

        • Next time some mother sobs to the press about how she didn't know Grand Theft Auto was about stealing cars and wasn't for little kids, everyone can slap her and point to this software that would have done the job for idiots like her.

          Why can't we slap her now? Any idiot that reads the game box can figure this stuff out.

      • If the parents said no to Grand Theft Auto, how did the kid get it? If the kid bought it on his own, take away his cash flow. If the kid downloaded it off some warez site, then this solution probably won't prevent that either. The program searches the ESRB ratings database to accomplish it's goal, and it has to get the name from somewhere. If it's the shortcut, the kid will change the name. If it's embedded in the game somehow, there'll probably be something in the crack that changes that too. You're never
        • You're never going to stop a clever kid with clever hacks.
          Clever kids don't need to be stopped. Clever kids can differentiate between a fantasy game and reality. If a kid is sufficiently clever enough to figure out how to play the game, that kid is not in danger of undue influence from it.

          This is the "You-Must-Be-At-Least-This-Smart-To-Ride-This-Ride " equivalent.
    • Common sense is an oxymoron. Sense is not a common thing at all.

    • Re:Ever hear of common sense? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by hunterx11 ( 778171 ) <hunterx11@NOSpAm.gmail.com> on Monday April 25, 2005 @07:43PM (#12343127) Homepage Journal
      This is a tool to help parents do their jobs. It is not being foisted on anyone. You can't complain about lazy parents, and at the same time chastise parents for not being lazy. This fits in perfectly with the idea of the ESRB rating system: voluntary ratings made to inform the parents and allow them to meaningfully control what their kids play. Without this sort of thing, people are going to listen to idiots like Joe Lieberman.

  • And they claim video games influences violent... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Bones3D_mac ( 324952 ) on Monday April 25, 2005 @07:30PM (#12342996)
    But just wait until some kid goes Columbine because this thing cut off his game before he could save his progress.

  • Why not? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by RatBastard ( 949 ) on Monday April 25, 2005 @07:30PM (#12342999) Homepage
    As long as it is voluntary (sp?) I'm fine with it. Parents should have the right to take charge of what their rotten little bastards are up to. If it's mandated that all computers have this then I'm against it. But, I don't have any knee-biters in my household.

    • Re:Why not? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by fgl ( 792403 )
      I agree as long as they dont legislate a requirement for its inclusion & there is no state monitored list of whats approved, this seems fine & dandy for parents on the go today.

    • Re:Why not? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by august sun ( 799030 ) on Monday April 25, 2005 @07:40PM (#12343101)
      I'm with you. Despite everyone elses cries of lazy parenting, it's just not realistic anymore to expect to have a parent at home at all the same times as the children. If it's good parenting to lock your alcohol/guns/porn away, why not something else which the parents have deemed detrimental in unregulated amounts.

      • Ridiculous (Score:4, Informative)

        by anomaly ( 15035 ) <tom.cooper3@gmail.DEBIANcom minus distro> on Tuesday April 26, 2005 @07:56AM (#12347046)
        it's just not realistic anymore to expect to have a parent at home at all the same times as the children

        WHAT!?!?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!?!
        It is hard, to be sure, but it is absolutely realistic and possible to have one parent at home when the kids are home

        (assuming a two-parent household where there's a good relationship between the parents, and both parents are physically and emotionally healthy - where healthy is defined as behavior within currently acceptable social norms)

        This is about life choices, people. You (generally) choose the quality of your relationship with your spouse; you choose where to live, what kind of cars to drive, how much you spend on yourself, and what your priorities are!

        Our family of six lives on my income alone. We own a relatively small home, we drive used cars, we shop for bargains - yardsales, freecycle, etc - and we have healthy, well adjusted kids where mom is home with them.

        It's my job to earn an income, and then to come home and co-parent my kids. That means after a tough day at the office I come home, take the baby from my wife, and keep the rest of the kids entertained while she finishes preparing dinner. We play as a family together until time for bed when it's my responsibility to share the workload with my wife. I grocery shop after the kids are in bed or I take the kids with me so that she gets some rest.

        The point is we CHOSE to live a more fiscally conservative lifestyle so that our kids could have a parent at home. Our income is above 'average' but I am sure that we could do this on an 'average' income. If it was too expensive to live in a metro area, we could move someplace cheaper. It's all a choice.

        Almost everyone could choose this, too. There ARE exceptions as noted above. Some of those exceptions could be eliminated. Got a bad marriage? Work on turning it around! Bad health? Most health problems are related to lack of activity and obesity. Perhaps there's a place to start.

        Let's avoid some of the knee-jerk responses, while I'm at it. If you have serious illness - HIV/AIDS, Cancer, MS, and a whole host of others, it's going to be MUCH harder to make it work having a parent at home. If you have a drug-addicted or absent partner, having a parent at home is impossible.

        Let's talk about the middle of the bell curve, not the extremes. People can make financial and personal sacrifices to provide a present parent. Most are simply too selfish to do so, or they have never thought through the fact that they ARE making choices. With appropriate self-evaluation, and a willingness to do without, most two-parent families could have both parents at home. They just don't.

        This is not a lack of realism, but rather a lack of wisdom.

        BTW - it IS good parenting to lock away guns, cleaners, prescription medicines, etc. This software helps parents with some kids, by choice, and I consider that a good thing.

        Respectfully,
        Anomaly

  • Stupid. (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Depris ( 612363 )
    the problem with these types of measures is they don't take into account idle time (as in maybe going to the bathroom and leaving it on or pausing for some reason) and also I know from experiance playing 2 hours of a game when you are close to the end or completing an important part and then getting booted off would be discouraging at best.

  • The Computer... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by sammykrupa ( 828537 )
    ...will allow parents to control their children's PC gaming
    Damn.

  • Or (Score:2, Insightful)

    by NIK282000 ( 737852 )
    Parents could pay attention to their children and not let them buy the game in the first place. Being 17 I can see why parents would just shell out some money for some way to control their kids without having to talk to them, but if parents woudl just sit down and talk, or even better, unplug the box alltogether they coudl save some money.
    • Dude...

      There are many more applications for a product like this than just plain denying access to a game.

      As a parent myself, the first thing I do is talk with my children about exactly what my specific reasons are for a rule that I might have. They may of course disagree with me, and I encourage that kind of free thinking, but if the rule is set, they cannot disregard or change that would consulting me first.

      Something like this, for a good parent, is not the only line of defense, it is the second or thi

  • Good Idea (Score:5, Insightful)

    by cc-rider-Texas ( 877967 ) on Monday April 25, 2005 @07:32PM (#12343023) Homepage
    Gives the parents a little control over what their kids are into and keeps the government's ever pervasive fingers out of it. I for one don't want a village overseeing my kids (well, grandkids now), just the family.

  • Hrm, interesting idea. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by MajroMax ( 112652 ) on Monday April 25, 2005 @07:33PM (#12343027)
    Although I personally feel that the ESRB system is relinquishing moral judgements into the hands of a distant third party (much like movie ratings), this system does seem to be a reasonable idea.

    It is also a very compelling argument in favor of multi-user systems.

    The big catch with this idea, though, is that this is restricted to only commercial titles, and ESRB-rated titles at that. While TFA says that this can also be used to control "computer use," it likely won't be able to distinguish web/Java games from web research for the science fair.

    I speculate that the software knows executable names for commercially released games, and it can then cross-reference these against the ESRB database. With this in mind, smaller catches are that this software will require regular updates, and the ESRB rating system itself is quite coarse: look at the dearth of adults-only games.

  • windows vs linux (Score:5, Insightful)

    by delirium of disorder ( 701392 ) on Monday April 25, 2005 @07:34PM (#12343041) Homepage Journal
    If this gets implimented on a wide scale, I think we will see bootable Linux cds with the nvidia kernel and doom3 or halflife2 installed becomming very popular.

    I love these kinds of restrictions, they really help kids get creative and find ways around systems of control. It teaches them valuable lessons that they will need later in life as DRM get more and more popular. If we are to live in a free society, we need creative people who can subvert the confinements imposed by parents, churches, governments, and corporations.
    • If this gets implimented on a wide scale, I think we will see bootable Linux cds with the nvidia kernel and doom3 or halflife2 installed becomming very popular.

      BIOS password and no boot from CD-ROM. What do you have for that? Oh, and a lock for the computer case, don't want the little bastards messing with the jumpers, trying to reset the password.

      • BIOS password and no boot from CD-ROM. What do you have for that? Oh, and a lock for the computer
        case, don't want the little bastards messing with the jumpers, trying to reset the password.

        Flash the BIOS from within the OS, that should get rid of the BIOS password.
        • Flash the BIOS from within the OS, that should get rid of the BIOS password.

          I don't think you can do that with BIOS that is jumpered on the motherboard, only on a jumperless motherboard. That is the whole reason for the jumper. Set the jumper on, and you can write/clear the BIOS. Set the jumper the other way, and you can't write/clear the BIOS.

          Plus, you would never give your kid admin on a windows box. You would not even give them permission to instal any software. And you would have some software moni

  • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • So... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 25, 2005 @07:36PM (#12343066)
    What makes it tick?

    "Wallfly: ...Is self-learning and automatically updated so that existing policies and restrictions will apply to even the newest software without additional administration. ...Is hacker resistant. Attempts to tamper with or disable WallFly will cause an alert to be emailed to the parent. Renaming files or installing new games does not fool WallFly."

    So it learns by itself what the files are? The ESRB doesn't publish the rating for a given md5sum (and even then, games could be patched with a NOP at the beginning or end, or games that update themselves would evade the checksum).

    Unless it checks to see whether the title in the .exe file "metadata" matches a blocked title, which would be easy to 'fix'.

    Just some thoughts... any ideas?

  • God I love stock photos. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by beswicks ( 584636 ) on Monday April 25, 2005 @07:37PM (#12343072)
    Really nice picture on the product page of a father and son using an Apple iBook...

    Shame the software is for Windows.

    Personally I would suggest not buying games for a child that are rated above his/her age...

    Also how does it stop a kid from playing Flash games in a web browser instead of researching homework...

    Or that the kid probabally knows more about the computer than ma or pa.
  • When you're a hormone driven teenager porn is something that will somehow mysteriously find it's way to you. 2 out of 5 machines that were brought into my shop TODAY were here because of damage to the system. 1 was a 15 year old, the other 16. Both had P2P and "other" items on it. One machine literally had 90gigs of porn! Take about having his stroke material all planned out. Granted, I'm talking about the blockster and not the wallfly, but either is a great thing. it would even be better if they wer

  • Don't be fooled! (Score:3, Funny)

    by uncoveror ( 570620 ) on Monday April 25, 2005 @07:41PM (#12343115) Homepage
    The V-chip is not about protecting the children. It is a surveillance device. [uncoveror.com] This new software version for computers is probably no different.
  • Seriuously, would it be really difficult to end the process tree, and run the game directly (you don't even need explorer up to run things. Try ending it and using taskmon's "new task" menu to launch programs).

    If it keeps coming back, well... treat it like the blaster worm :D I had fun removing that manually* before the tools came out.

    *Notepad + end task + quick timing. Open the exe, delete everything. File, save-as. Make it save as an exe. Leave the overwrite confirmation box up. Use taskmon to "end proc
  • ... I can tell you that it's been over 20 years that I have to find ways to lock my own parents out of some functions of their computers at their request.

    I guess I would have, as a child, been really happy to have such a program handy to accomplish that overwhelming task of securing the less knowledgeables among us from themselves.

    Right, I was (just a little) kidding, but honestly, my parents have never been able to know what was going on in their computer, so mine was even more beyhond the radar, and I d

  • As a parent of four, this is my opinion (Score:5, Interesting)

    by CrackHappy ( 625183 ) on Monday April 25, 2005 @07:54PM (#12343222) Journal
    My oldest just turned 9.

    We monitor his game usage pretty much all the time he is using it, and the computer is set up in such a way that anyone can see what's on the monitor at almost any time, as it is set up in the main living room.

    He is only allowed to play games which:
    1) I have played.
    2) I do not feel is too violent or sexual in nature.
    3) Which I feel will not alter his behaviour in an undesirable way.

    I feel that #3 can be important. If you do not pay close attention to the way your child acts after they play a video game, the results could surprise you. He was playing what I had at the time thought of as a rather non-violent game - a space conquest game that is basically just a strategy game. There are no characters, no people of any kind in it at all, but it actually seemed to have a detrimental effect on him and he became more violent. Almost as soon as I cut his access off, his attitude and behaviour improved.

    At another time, he was playing what I considered to be a graphically violent game, but it did not affect him adversely at all. In fact he ended up identifying with the characters and gaining compassion because of it.

    I think that the ESRB ratings are a pretty good system, although they could still use improvement (what couldn't?).

    As a parent, I have seriously considered getting the software in TFA, not because of the ratings system that it uses, but because it helps me regulate the amount of time he gets to use it for. It would be very useful to have an objective system by which I can "pay" him for doing his chores by granting him an extra hour a week to play. Trying to monitor his time on the computer is a lot harder without a tool like this.

    I have complete control over my home computer, so it's not a matter of access to games, but of access for the TIME to play them. I would much rather punish my son by reducing his weekly allotment of computer play time by 1/2 an hour than standing him in time-out or making him do extra chores.

    To me this is a tool to be used to help me parent effectively, not as a substitute for my parenting.

  • As a informed parent, I protest. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by NullProg ( 70833 ) on Monday April 25, 2005 @07:55PM (#12343228) Homepage Journal
    As a friend to a lot of other parents who don't know the difference between M,T, and E ratings, only the video game makers are to blame for this. The self-regulating ratings are a joke.

    I don't believe in censorship for video games (government or otherwise). I regulate (censor) what my kids see/do, but thats my right as a parent.

    I think another rating system is in order for the clueless who buy eight year old Johnny Doom III because he asks for it.

    Whatever happend to /noblood /nosex etc. options (Duke3D, Mortal Combat)?

    Food for thought,
    Enjoy.

  • I've read a lot of comments suggesting parents simply don't buy, or allow their kids to buy, games with particular ratings. However this overlooks one very glaring issue, pirated games. What's to stop a kid from downloading or getting a copy of a game from his friends with an M rating and playing it without the parents knowing?

    While this is not a replacement for parenting, it does help some. Personally I've always liked solutions like this because they keep the government out of the censorship business.
    • I never said the kid crackd the game himself, I merely suggested he got a copy from his friend or off a P2P app. Unless parents actively snoop around on theiir kids computers (which has been found to be illegal in some states - privacy rights and all) they aren't going to catch this one. If, on the other hand, they install this v-chip software, they have a reaonable expectation that certain rated games are likely not going to run on the computer. With limited monitoring of the kid's computer they can cat
  • Complaining about "lazy parenting" aside, there are always problems with censorship via software. My first experience with the web was in high school, and in my comptuer class one of our assignments was to make a web page. So I started looking for links for stuff I was interested in at the time, like X-Men comics. All the sites I came up with were blocked by the schools net filter. After thinking "wtf? X-Men comics are PG!", I tried an experiment, and typed in www.playboy.com, and hit enter. Boom! Up

  • Oh Dear God, the Flood Begins (Score:4, Interesting)

    by CrankyFool ( 680025 ) on Monday April 25, 2005 @08:05PM (#12343301)
    A) Why not just not buy them the games?

    Because maybe you _didn't_ buy them the games, but they borrowed them from friends, or bought them with their own money; or maybe the games are for you, not for the little tykes;

    B) Why, when I was a kid and they tried to do this to me, I hax0red the PC to let me do it anyway! Any average kid will be able to do this in about 5 minutes!

    I call bullshit, and would like to see cite. "A person I know did it" is an anecdote. An anecdote is not the singular form of evidence. Sure, some kids will be able to get around this; some kids won't bother and will do something else. It's not like you're betting your life on their inability to hax0r the system.

    C) Parents should just pay attention to their kids!

    Right. Because the correct answer is for the parent to always watch over the kid's shoulder. That'll help the kid develop well.

    Look, I'm not an advocate of this tool, and I wouldn't use it with my kids -- I grew up in a household where my dad's firearms were easily accessible to me with no lock in the way. Instead of hiding them from me, my dad taught me how to use them safely and said "whenever you'd like to shoot them, I'll go with you." Not quite the same thing with porn, but that's because I didn't ask. But some parents would like to do what they can to make it so their kids don't have access to these sorts of games, and while this isn't a panacea (hey Bobby, can I come over and play UberViolence? Thanks!), it can be helpful.

  • What is comming next... (Score:4, Funny)

    by John Seminal ( 698722 ) on Monday April 25, 2005 @08:12PM (#12343363) Journal
    This software solution will not work or last.

    Government will force computer manufacturers to put a V-chip, hardware, in the computer. They already did it with TV's. Why? Because hardware is much more difficult to hack than software. Look at how much more difficult it is to pirate games for the playstation, you need a mod chip, not just a copy of the game. And that costs extra money, and takes time. Plus, if you try and add the chip on your own, you could fry the whole system.

    I would also like an alarm system to sound when the kid tries to play a game they are not allowed to play. A nice loud siren. Maybe the monitor can flash red too.

  • I've heard that the help desks at TV companies never get calls from parents wanting to know how to activate the V chip so they can control their children's TV viewing. All the calls are from parents whose kids were playing with the TV and enabled the V chip, and the parents are calling to find out how to turn it off so they can watch their own grown-up shows.
  • now it's big mother

    itza great way to interest kidz in hackin tho

  • Or... (Score:2)

    by Sj0 ( 472011 )
    Or...they could...just...you know....not let their kids play the games...

    But hey, razor thin safety barrier vs. getting off your ass and parenting for once, I know I'd choose the razor thin safety barrier too...right?

  • Rephrase the caption... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mark-t ( 151149 ) <markt AT nerdflat DOT com> on Monday April 25, 2005 @08:59PM (#12343707) Journal
    "CBS news is reporting that SMARTGUARD software is releasing a new application that will allow parents to have the illusion that they control their children's PC gaming".

    Because that's all it will ever be, an illusion.

    Kids get around their parents porn-proofing the computers all the time, the number of kids this will stop from playing those games is inconsequential.

  • Parenting (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Beolach ( 518512 ) <beolach@juMONETno.com minus painter> on Monday April 25, 2005 @09:05PM (#12343753) Homepage Journal
    Everytime I see articles like this, there's a plethora of comments along the lines of "Gee, why don't the parents just, I dunno, do some parenting!"

    Guess what? This is a form of parenting. Whether it's an effective, or good method of parenting is debatable, but a parent who uses software like this is making an effort at raising their child to be what they consider to be a good moral person. Your opinion of what a good moral person is may differ; and the methods they choose to try to promote their morals may not be as effective as they think, but they are making an effort.

  • Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday April 26, 2005 @02:05AM (#12345643)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • ctrl+alt+delete (Score:3, Informative)

    by krunk4ever ( 856261 ) on Tuesday April 26, 2005 @03:26AM (#12345933) Homepage
    any child with even the tiniest bit of smartness will know about ctrl+alt+delete and how to disable software. some might say that parents would not give the access rights for their child to turn it off, but if the parent knew about access rights in the 1st place, they wouldn't have needed the vchip.

    remember back in the good old days when the favorite 2 key combo after ctrl+alt+del was alt+tab? before starting any game, i would open a word document (partially filled in, u dont want to get caught with an empty word document). whenever my parents walked in, a quick alt+tab and it'll look like i'm serious at work.

    also, how will this vchip detect flash games. many of the internet games nowadays are programmed in flash.

  • I like the idea in a way... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by NoMercy ( 105420 ) on Tuesday April 26, 2005 @03:27AM (#12345939)
    It's a nice tool which I'd probably set only to stop games rated Adult, I'd rather my kids don't get exposed to some of the darker parts of society before they have to.

    As others have pointed out, it's no fix for proper parenting, though it'd help a lot of parents knew how to use computers.

  • Fine (Score:3, Insightful)

    by t_allardyce ( 48447 ) on Tuesday April 26, 2005 @03:36AM (#12345975) Journal
    Whatever as long as this means stupid parent groups will get off the backs of the game developers. Personally i think digital TV standards should come with a more accurate censorship system, since most countries are about to switch over to digital now is the perfect time to get this into the set top boxes people are about to buy - basically the system should be similar to the v-chip except its user-configurable to censor anything from an entire channel to just a program to just a scene or second or two of video or even black out a portion of the screen and the same with audio. Not only that it should be configurable to be either 'censor all except material flagged ok' or 'only censor material flagged adult' this way its totally optional whether tv networks actually encode their programs but they have the incentive to do so because they know there will be lots of people setting it to censor all by default. This would totally solve all censorship and free-speech issues on both sides of the political spectrum forever.

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