* Be harmed emotionally by the events, possibly in subtle ways; for instance, the child will have nightmares. Will nightmares permanently damage the kid? No. But neither does stubbing your toe. You don't wish that on a kid either.
* As a result of that, or because of learning the wrong message from the experience, the child will act out in ways that will (a) harm other kids and (b) (more importantly) get the kid into needless trouble.
No, he's not going to go steal a car or run over an old lady. Nobody is saying that. But I'm going to stick up for the original poster who, like me, was apparently made queasy by the idea of exposing a FOUR YEAR OLD to GRAND THEFT AUTO.
Freely admitted: my first reaction to this story was, "aw, that's so cute." The negative stuff crept up on me.
I don't disagree with your overall point, but I think you picked a bad example.
While I wouldn't wish for my kid to stub a toe at any given moment, I also wouldn't want her to grow up without the experience of toe-stubbing - it teaches a valuable lesson (be careful of where you put your feet!).
But isn't that exactly one of the reasons to play games: to be able to explore dangerous things in safety? Maybe somebody should devise a toe stubbing game...
I don't know enough about GTA, but it seems as if he was able to play without severely bad experiences. Granted, running over the lady was questionable, but apparently his dad managed to convince him it was a game.
Also, not sure how much can be done against nightmares. The imagination is there - you can't always predict what scary ideas it might create.
That said, there are probably lots of other things to do besides playing GTA...
On the account of nightmares. My first prolonged exposure to violent video games did result in nightmares. I was round 6 at the time and have spent two hours playing Battle Chess.
However, many other events result in nightmares. And I reckon that gaming is a worthwhile cause.
* Be harmed emotionally by the events, possibly in subtle ways; for instance, the child will have nightmares. Will nightmares permanently damage the kid? No. But neither does stubbing your toe. You don't wish that on a kid either.
* As a result of that, or because of learning the wrong message from the experience, the child will act out in ways that will (a) harm other kids and (b) (more importantly) get the kid into needless trouble.
No, he's not going to go steal a car or run over an old lady. Nobody is saying that. But I'm going to stick up for the original poster who, like me, was apparently made queasy by the idea of exposing a FOUR YEAR OLD to GRAND THEFT AUTO.
Freely admitted: my first reaction to this story was, "aw, that's so cute." The negative stuff crept up on me.