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A mother who bought a Scrabble game for her eight-year-old son's computer console to improve his vocabulary has told of her disgust after it produced a string of swearwords.
Mother's fury over Nintendo Scrabble game that taught her son swear words | Mail Online
Seeded on Mon Dec 8, 2008 5:28 AM EST
Article Source: the Mail online- Enjoy this article? Help vote it up the 'Vine.
- Public Discussion (11)
It's probably better to learn them at home with Mum than in the school yard without her! She can at least explain why they should not be used without sniggering.
#1 - Mon Dec 8, 2008 6:22 AM ESTDidn't the kid have to input the words to begin with?
You can not protect your children from life.
I hope that the parents never go near a library.
If the mother was that concerned about teaching her kid to spell why didn't she get the board game and play it with the kid a few times a week?
- 1 vote
#2 - Mon Dec 8, 2008 6:57 AM ESTNo, scrabble has helps so if the kid had the right letters, the wrong words could be suggested.
Mom needs to grow up, if the kid can play scrabble he already knows most of these words anyway. Now he knows how to spell them too.
3sheets, You're very correct. A mom who is that protective should not allow her kid access to a computer at all. A computer connects to the internet and the internet is....
LOL
Read again... the computer opponents he was playing against used the words. Not him.
I think the mother is fair in asking for a more obvious explination of the "Junior" level option. She wasn't asking for a ban on the game, which is nice. That said, it may already be obvious and she just overlooked it.
I think it's good when a parent takes an active role in their childs upbringing, it's far better than the alternative and just letting them do whatever the hell they want. Which seems to be a norm these days.
Do you play computer games against the computer? In scrabble you are playing that dictionary.
Admitting time, I always read the entire article but this time, I just scanned it and OK, that part got screwed up in my tiny brain. I actually pictured him sitting there with the letters, k - j- u - s - c - f - l and the f word, with an s, coming up as one of his choices for best word. The play would include putting that s on a triple word square, at the end of a great word increasing the score enormously, this would of course cause that word to really stick in his formative mind.
She is asking the game to alter the dictionary? That does not make a very real game of scrabble available does it? Any parent who takes a truly active role in their child's upbringing knows they can not protect their kids from learning such words, they will learn them, even in the best private Catholic schools, Hell, I did.
It's so easy to blame everyone (thing) except where the blame should lay. Instead of taking the time to sit with her son and help him, she relied on a computer. She should be mad at herself for not taking the time to help her son the old fashioned way.
#4 - Mon Dec 8, 2008 9:01 AM ESTI agree with your comment, Richard. But I am also glad to note that the article states the mom actually played the thing before just giving it to her son. So many parents buy these games and just give them to their kids with no knowledge of what they may contain. Then they're the first ones to "act" outraged when little tommy starts swearing around the house. They're also the ones to rely on someone else's judgement for what their kids should play or see.
'The worst thing is that there's an age rating of 3+ on the box and no advisory warning about adult language on the packaging at all,'
And I love how the article just kind of throws this in...
said Mrs Carrington, who also has a two-year-old daughter, Destiny.
as if that has anything whatsoever to do with the article.
Lady, you bought the game. If yo udon't like the content, throw it away or sell it. Buy the kid a real Scrabble game and actually sit down and play it with him. That way when little precious innocent Ethan starts letting curse words slip, you can attribute it to him hearing you screaming explicitives because he beat you to the triple word score. God forbid you actually realize he's going to hear it everywhere else, including at his local schoolyard.
- 1 vote
#5 - Mon Dec 8, 2008 11:38 AM ESTIf you use the board game a dictionary will be used at some time. Again, same problem. Her kid is going to see swear words.
I think the only thing this mom can do it put her kid in a bubble, close the door, turn off the TV and radio and pray for the best.
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