[quote name='captmurphy']I agree that most every 8 year old on the planet would love Spiderman, but that doesn't mean they should have exposure to it.
I am obviously in the minority here, but when I have kids, they will not be watching movies like Spiderman when they are 8. There is simply too much violence. I lived in Europe for a year, where violence in movies and television is not tolerated as it is here and it really opened my eyes as to how we as Americans view and accept violence as "normal."
The moment you put the controller in the hands of an 8 year old and boot up Marvel UA, you are sending the message that
A. It is O.K. to beat people up if they are "bad-guys."
B. You "win" by beating everybody up, and loose if you "die."
Kids have a hard enough time separating reality from fantasy to begin with; they don't need you giving them mixed signals.
"Johnny, it is not OK to hit people."
"Good job Johnny! Kill this guy and then you beat the level!"
I have a 9 year old cousin who was exposed to violence in games and movies from a very early age, and he is out of control. He runs around performing "multiplier combos" of Hulk moves on the dog and random passerby's. His parents did not do a good job in helping him understand that the violence he sees in that media is not appropriate for real life.
I'm not some wacko... I play Gears, Halo, Unreal, Half Life, etc. But I am 22 years old, and can understand that what I am seeing on the screen isn't real, and most importantly, isn't acceptable in "real life." An 8 year old simply cannot comprehend this.
My kids will play games like Hexic, World of Goo, NBA/ NFL 2kX, and Project Gotham Racing until they can understand that important distinction.[/QUOTE]
I'm 22 years-old as well, and I can clearly remember being a pre-adolescent playing X-men, Spider-man and Hulk games on the Sega Genesis. Games where all you did was bash cartoonish bad guys. Yet neither myself, my brothers nor my friends that participated in this fantasy bashing have ever lost the distinction between games and reality, we've never considered it a message to wreak havoc without penalty.
(incidentally, I think you'd be happy to know that the Spider-man cartoon on Fox was actually forbidden from depicting Spiderman punching anyone and guns that had bullets, so all the cops had space lasers and Spiderman did a lot of kicking.)
I'd say you're not giving 8-year-olds enough credit. So long as the child's been brought up to respect real people there shouldn't be a problem. Sure there are some kooks out there like your cousin, but well-adjusted kids are not going to head out and look for goons/bystanders to pound thinking that life is a video game. If the OP's child in question is kooky too, then by all means starve the violence addiction, but this sort of thing should be a case by case basis.
I do understand your point though, I've lived abroad as well and it does open your eyes to the cult of violence(amusingly juxtaposed to something like a fear of sexuality) we have over here. But I'm not convinced that most kids can't handle superheroes or completely cartoony giant ants that bounce as you shoot them. on GOW or Halo I certainly agree with you though.
That said, I really can't imagine a situation where you don't want someone prepared to do battle with giant ants, UFOs and spiders.
