Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Paul Nelson, KSL Newsradio Both the Nintendo Wii and the Playstation 3 are changing what many people think about video games. But, some parents may not be keeping up with their children on knowing what those game systems are capable of doing.
Everybody seems to know what they are.
Nelson: "What's a Nintendo Wii system?"
"It's a game system that they hold in their hand."
Nelson: "What's a Playstation 3?"
"I guess it's the next improvement above a Playstation 2."
But, not everyone knows what it can do.
Nelson: "Can you look up the Internet?"
"I don't know. I honestly don't know that.
"PS3, I believe yes, and I don't know about the Wii."
"I don't know about that."
Actually you can look up the Web on both systems, and you can find anything, including, you guessed it, porn. Some parents I spoke with say they had no idea.
"Yeah, that really concerns me, particularly with children."
"His brother bought it for their kids. We told them you can get on the Internet, and you should have seen the look of fear in their face."
Scott Cleghorn: "The Web is coming into people's homes in a variety of ways."
ContentWatch Chief Operating Officer Scott Cleghorn says parents really should not be surprised. The Internet capability is one of the selling points for systems like the Playstation 3, but they're not getting the message.
Scott Cleghorn: "They try and make these consoles as multifunctional as they can and as valuable as they can. Every device you bring into the home, you need to look it over and see what it has access to and what controls are on it."
Cleghorn says you shouldn't be boycotting the game systems just yet. Like many online tools, the Wii and Playstation 3 come with parental controls.
Scott Cleghorn: "If you go into the system settings, a parent can provide or create a PIN and then specify what level of access their children can have to the Internet."
Some analysts say certain porn Web sites are modifying their content so it can be more accessible through the Wii game system. Cleghorn says parents can look up instructions for these parental controls by going online if they don't want to read the entire instruction manual that comes with the console.
