Parents Impose Video Game Rule: Follow the Geneva Conventions
Worried Canadian parents whose 13-year-old son wanted to play the World War II video game Call of Duty decided to acquiesce, on one condition: The boy would have to read the Geneva Conventions and play by those rules.
The dad, Hugh Spencer, wrote about his decision on the blog BoingBoing. The story has been picked up by several publications, including the Globe and Mail and MSNBC.
Spencer, who lives in Etobicoke, Ontario, works as an interpretive designer for museums and other public exhibitions. His uncle was in the Pacific Theater during World War II, and his grandfather fought in both world wars. He told MSNBC that he wanted his son, Evan, to “be aware that there are things called rules of war” and said combat is not a game.
The Globe and Mail interviewed Evan, who says he has learned this lesson: “Someone surrenders and you don’t just go and kill them anyways.”
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