The following blog post won't containt any pictures, movies or humorous jokes. Really, I assume the subject may not interest a lot of people, but I need to get this off of my shoulders so atleast I know that I have voiced my opinion and have done my part.
The subject of "kids" and "teenagers" on Xbox Live, and the internet as a whole has been on my mind for quite some time. But what really pushed me over the edge to the point where I had to voice my concerns, or views on the matter was yesterday's release of the Spring Update for the Xbox 360, and the subsequent uproar about the "MSN Messenger is not available to Child Accounts" error when thousands of people tried to use MSN (the Spring Update's most lauded feature) on their 360.
For those not familiar with the problem (and you can skip this paragraph if you are), it has been around since the launch of the 360. Upon creating your Xbox Live account, you had to enter your age and create (or enter a current) .Net Passport, also known as a Live ID. This is basically the account that is used for MSN.com, Msn Messenger, Hotmail.com, as well as your gamertag. Now when I created my Xbox Live account, I was the age of 17. Up to this point the only restraint placed on you for being under the age of 18 was that many movie, game and contest advertisements throughout the Blades on the 360 weren't viewable. And after yesterday's release of the Spring Update, MSN Messenger would not work if you were under the age of 18 (for security/protection concerns that come with the use of an online communicative program where having anonymous contacts you have not talked to or seen before is common). The real problem however is the fact that even if you were younger than 18 at the time of creating your Xbox Live account (which you could have done as early as 2002 when the Xbox Live service first went Live on the original Xbox), but you are currently over the age of 18, your 360 wouldn't be able to detect this. In other words, no matter how old you are, if you created your Xbox Live account before the age of 18 you aren't eligible to use the new MSN Messenger on your 360, nor can you view the formentioned advertisements on the Xbox Live Blades.
Getting back on topic, yesterday there was a very large uproar from not only kids and young adults who couldn't use this feature (which is available, for free, to anyone over the age of 13 on the PC), but also from adults over the age of 18 who created their account a year or more ago. They were paying the same price for the Xbox Live service as everyone else, yet they were being restricted certain features that really should be available to them through an option in the Family Settings. The problem arose when people who either created their Xbox Live account at the age of 18 or later, or who had lied about their age during the original setup, couldn't stand all of the complaints from who they assumed to be "little kids" about not being able to use Messenger. Here are several of the common complains found on message boards:
- It's not like you kids could use the feature yesterday on the 360, so now that it's available (for free) it's not like Microsoft is actually taking a feature away that you previously had"- "Go use Messenger on your PC"
- "What's the matter, can't talk to all your little school friends on your gaming console? It's meant for gaming, not texting!"
- "Kids always complain about any little thing that doesn't go their way"
- "If Microsoft did fix this update, you teenagers would just find something else to complain about"
- "This is what you get for ruining Xbox Live"
To be frank, comments like these aggrivated me to no end, for a lack of better words. Anytime I hear someone either in real life, over Xbox Live or on a forum degrading teenagers or kids saying "You're just some punk kid", "Grow a pair", "You'll learn that in middle school" or "Don't worry, he's just some kid" it really bothers me. In reality, "kids" or young adults have every right to be using the same service we do, because they pay for the same service we do. Staying on the subject of Xbox Live, I've met a hell'uva lot of great kids and young adults over Live, who have more respect, more maturity, and frankly more intelligence then a lot of the adults on Live. The same is true for internet forums. Almost everyone trash talks on Xbox Live, and yes there are a lot of kids or young adults who take it to a (pointless) extreme, but I would argue that there are almost as many adults who do the same.
The only reason why kids, in my mind, get singled out is usually because of their voices. I hear the same garbage that comes out of kids mouths over Xbox Live that I do from adults, however their higher-pitched voice opens up a whole new avenue of insults that on the flipside is not appplicable to most adults. Having this opportunity, adults are the first ones to say "Oh, he's just some kid", an insult that kids can't use under most situations. So perhaps, the majority of adults are even worse then most kids for going down the route of insults based on age and voice.
So next time someone in your Xbox Live game, or on your forum insults a kid just for being a kid, step in and tell them that they are likely the ones who need to grow up.
Comments
they should focus on using the age settings to restrict these 8-12 year old kids home alone playing Gears of War for 15 hours straight while their parents booze it up.
this entire situation just really pissed me off to begin with. i'm not a dumbass like who is gonna try to rape me over gears of war
Chaos_Man
I don't think you realize that when someone says that they are also pointing out they are trying to be adult when they are in fact not. I'm tired of kids trying to sound all big and mighty when they can make an insult or swear just for the sake of swearing. So I tend to say 'shut up kid', to remind them of the fact that he is not adult and should not be acting the way he is. This does not mean I point out to every child he is a child because quite frankly not all of them are bad. And I guess it's the parents liability for how they are raising their children and what is appropriate to say and not say.
I really have no problem with swears themselves, I just disagree with children using them because it is not the right additive to raise a well behaved child. It is often used as a word of power in a negative way and power is something children shouldn't have until they are more mature and capable of all the responsibilities they receive when they are older.
SO my final thought is, kids don't swear too often please, unless you know how to use them appropriately and at the right time. T the older demograph, don't rip on children so much cause it is taken very personally by them and they don't realize you are just some person in another country or state and you don't really matter.