Archive for the ‘Education’ Category

Letter to Nickelodean, Prevent Children from Playing Adult Games

Friday, May 28th, 2010

Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood is a national coalition of health care professionals, educators, advocacy groups, parents, and individuals who care about children. They had members vote on the worst toy of 2010 (already?) for children. They voted that the popular Flash gaming portal, AddictingGames.com is the worst toy for children. This seems to be because Nickelodean and all of their affiliate websites links to AddictingGames.com.

I’ve played some of the games on AddictingGames.com and it’s a mixed bag of trash and gold. They don’t seem to discriminate which kinds of games are accessible through their website.

This is a problem, because Nickelodean is a company devoted to entertaining children, and yet AddictingGames.com is in the business of entertaining anyone. By having Nickelodean link to AddictingGames.com, there is no way to ensure that children do not play violent or sexualized and otherwise inappropriate games. There is no way currently to filter out the adult games if the visitor came from a children focused website.

Steve Youngwood, Executive Vice President, Digital, Nickelodeon Kids and Family Group is being targeted (rightfully so) by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood to remove AddictingGames.com from their links page of games for children.

The only issue I had with this, was the original letter they wrote for people to sign and send to Mr. Youngwood, which I have copied below.

OLD

Dear Mr. Youngwood,

I am writing to express my outrage that Nickelodeon links to AddictingGames.com on Neopets.com, Nick.com and NickJr.com.  AddictingGames.com features violent and sexualized content that is completely inappropriate for children.  I am shocked that Nickelodeon would direct kids to a website where they can play games like Bloody Day, which boasts “back alley butchering has never been so fun,” or play the role of a leering peeping Tom in Perry the Sneak.  Linking to games like these from websites for young children is one reason parents have selected AddictingGames.com as the worst toy of the year.

I urge you to immediately remove any and all links to AddictingGames.com from Nick.com, NickJr.com, and any other Nickelodeon websites for children.

End of letter.

The problem I have with it is that it sort of distorts the truth. It implies that AddictingGames.com only has violent and sexualized games, but in fact, it has a wide variety, some of which are fine for children, such as Bloons.

I reworded the letter to say the following, which I think conveys more truth and offers a solution for all parties involved.

NEW

Dear Mr. Youngwood,

I am writing to express my outrage that Nickelodeon links to AddictingGames.com on Neopets.com, Nick.com and NickJr.com.  (note: I forgot to edit the “outrage”, because that is too strong a word to represent my view.)

AddictingGames.com features many games, some are fine for children, while others have violent and sexualized content that is completely inappropriate for children.  I am surprised that Nickelodeon would direct kids to a website where they can play games like Bloody Day, which boasts “back alley butchering has never been so fun,” or play the role of a leering peeping Tom in Naughty Park.  For this reason parents have selected AddictingGames.com as the worst toy of the year.

I urge you to immediately remove any and all links to AddictingGames.com from Nick.com, NickJr.com, and any other Nickelodeon websites for children. Something should be done to ensure that future links from Nickelodean websites only go to gaming websites that have child safe content. Or websites that have a wide range of content only display age appropriate content if the visitor arrives from a Nickelodean website.

Sincerely,

-Reid Kimball

I kind of rushed in that solution towards the end there, but the idea is that if someone is on a Nickelodean website and they click on a link to go to any outside gaming website, like AddictingGames.com, they are directed to a special section of the website that only features games for children.

I realize that there are ways to get around that, any kid could re-type the URL to get full access to AddictingGames.com. Another idea is that parents of children could register a “parental” account that will email them a list of games that are being played, at what times and for how long. This way, they might be able to discover that at 3:30pm, just after school, but while they were at work, their child went to AddictingGames.com and played an inappropriate game.

What do you think? Something ought to be done I think, because there is no ESRB for online games and in years to come, more and more games will be accessible online.

© 2010, Reid Bryant Kimball. All rights reserved.

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Posted in Education, Health, Social Issue Games, Videogame Industry | No Comments »

Western Lifestyle Creating Vicious Cycle of Destruction

Thursday, May 20th, 2010

Our lifestyle is making the planet unsustainable for our lifestyle. The planet revolts and destroys our bodies. Our bodies destroy our minds. Our minds destroy our world. The cycle is self-connecting, perpetual and vicious. It must be broken.

We dump dead diseased animals into rivers. The rotting flesh, organs full of parasites and bacteria ooze into the water.

Thirsty, we drink.

Dirty, we clean.

We consume useless products we don’t need, to impress the people we don’t like, only to throw them out or lose them within months. They leach toxic chemicals into the earth and rot for hundreds of years.

We abuse our soil, which lacks nutrients for the food we grow. The food, stunted, lacks ability to fight pests.

We spray pesticides.

We eat pesticides.

We are pests.

Corporations bound by law to profit exploit and cut corners in order to keep shareholders happy, while they spew pollution into our waters, our air and our land.

Hungry, we consume.

Blind, we demand more.

We cannot continue this any longer. To do so is bringing a slow, but certain total destruction to all life.

Enter Exhibit A: It began centuries ago, one example being the poor treatment of cows. Their raw milk turned deadly, leading to an epidemic of Tuberculosis. This led to pasteurization and ultra-pasteurization, which can cause further disease and allergies. This disrespect for nature continues today. We harm our planet and it harms us.

Enter Exhibit B: The disastrous BP owned Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The air, which is 100 times more toxic than normal due to oil dispersant chemicals is making the people of Louisiana cough, gag and unable to sleep. Symptoms just like those who lived near previous oil spills.

Government and local authorities at this time of writing have yet to provide health services. If the toxic dust after the Twin Towers fell in NYC is any indication, it will be years before the people of Louisiana see any relief, if they live long enough.

Enter Exhibit C: The Red River in Winnipeg, Canada, an area known to have the highest incidence of Crohn’s disease, a devastating inflammatory bowel disease. In 1997 I was diagnosed with it.

That’s me, having the time of my life tubing and wakeboarding on the Red River up in Winnipeg, Canada. I’m the one showing off to the camera, unknowingly ingesting bacteria that would work over my gut for the next 6 months. Then symptoms of diarrhea and gut pain were frequent. My friend warned me not to drink the water, which I didn’t think I had. It wasn’t until years later that I learned from her and a UK doctor that farmers liberally use the river as dumping grounds for waste and dead animals.

Don’t you see? The system is out of whack, out of sync, on the verge of collapse. What the planet needs, what WE need, is to unplug from Western society. Forgo consumption in place of contribution. Skip the rat race towards piles of monopoly money that only exist on Wall Street computers. Rediscover the value of things that cannot be valued; relationships and community.

When this disrespect of all things living ends, no longer will we have increasing rates of disease and decreasing rates of longevity.

UPDATE #1: Huffington Post has an article that is along the same lines as the above, posted on May 19th, but I didn’t see it until today, May 23rd.

© 2010, Reid Bryant Kimball. All rights reserved.

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Posted in Current Events, Education, Health, environment | No Comments »