For all the hubbub we see every time the latest Grand Theft Auto or some other violent game comes out, we've never quite understood what the big deal is. Sure, you've got to keep impressionable youth away from violent content, but that's exactly why all the current game consoles have parental controls, letting you limit access to games based on their ratings. So, if parents don't buy mature games for kids, and lock the systems to keep a borrowed copy from working on them, then how is there still a problem? Apparently, the issue is that not enough parents are aware of these tools at their disposal, so Microsoft and Best Buy are teaming up for a public education campaign called Get Game Smart.

In addition to showing you how to lock up your Windows Vista PC and 360 console with tightly-enforced parental controls, the site tries to show you how to start a dialogue with kids about not only appropriate gaming, but broader online safety in general. While there's a lot of sound advice up on the site, it's a bit disconcerting how much of it seems like it should be common sense; are there really parents that need to be told not to give their kids private webcams?

As some bloggers have pointed out, if Microsoft was being really altruistic and putting kids first, it would take a paragraph or two and explain how to also set up console locks on the Wii and PS3, instead of just its systems. We don't mind too much, as that information is readily available for parents who look for it, and hopefully after reading through some of the content on Get Game Smart, parents will be thinking in the right mindset to track it down.

Even if you don't need any parenting advice, you still might want to check out some of the sweepstakes that are running, giving out a hundred and one Best Buy gift cards.
 

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