This debate is as old fashioned as your viewpoint. The game was rated as 7+, meaning that experts who are paid to classify games according to specific categories believed that children aged 7 and over would be perfectly OK to play it. Mollycoddling your children like this will only lead them to resent you and seek more alarming outlets for their resentment. Today he's kicking a shoe stand, in 5, 6 years he could be kicking someone's head in. Let the poor kid play the game, and stop embarassing him.

Video games, films and TV are NOT by any means the reason for society's ills. Violence is in our nature, history shows that.
Of all my friends, 100% have played or owned one or more GTA games. Not a single one has ever been gripped by the urge to join a gang, stab or shoot someone or mug someone. Not being braindead idiots, we know that in the real world, there are things you just don't do, like stab, shoot or mug people. The game has cheats to get rid of the cops. Life doesn't. We know

JamieB, Chaldon, UK

It's hardly news. The Simpsons hit-and-run game has been out for years and, compared to even the most sedate of new releases, is very child-friendly, and not at all violent.
There are many, many games with low or no violence, or else chess-like, tactical turn based combat so magical, stylised and gore-free it can hardly be called combat at all, but you probably won't find them in the bargain bin. There are games which tell stories, expand the imagination, fulfil childrens' desire to explore and discover, teach critical and moral thinking and present worlds as beautiful and convincing as any childrens' novel, but like a good novel, they're uncommon.
Some research into gaming genres and content would be advisable...
Check out Knights of the Old Republic and Final Fantasy X for your older son.

Greg, Northampton, UK

The knee jerk reaction of all gamers (myself included) whenever someone tries to censor game content is totally predictable, and usually right. Sure these games are not real, but kids at that age are not fully developed, hence the age of criminal responsibility etc. So blaming the person not the game works for adults, but not children.
Well done for standing up to pester power.

Al, London, UK

Surely at the age off 11 your son would be aware that the game is simply that, just a game?

Wheras your younger son at his age obviously isnt. Maybe try explaining the concept to him? or at least ensure your younger child is out of the room while the vending machine abuse is at play.

Another note - if you can afford to buy footwear from Clarks that your child will have grown out of in approx.5 weeks, then I'm pretty sure you can afford the behavioural theraphy your child will so 'obviously' need?

Rebecca, Merseyside,

i think the author has pretty spectaculary missed the entire point here of the videogames undustry

andrew myers, leeds,

Sam of Farnham is fortunate but most people are what they eat, and that applies to the mind.
People ARE ruder, children are more precocious, adolescents are more aggressive because they have been told in all the media that they have a right to be. And this no doubt is caused by manufacturers aiming for the lowest targets, the non-questioners, who comprise the major part of society - in any society. What sells is the noisiest, the more agitating, because thinking especially thinking for oneself is not popular. Our society sleeps, and the sleep is a nightmare that no one notices.

a dahn, bangor, n.i.

I wouldn't want you as my mother. Why didn't you just buy him a different game?

Your son wasn't kicking those shoe stands because of the game he played. Your son was probably kicking the shoe stands in frustration because you went to buy him a pair of shoes instead of an entertaining game. I don't know how entertaining shoes have gotten lately but I'm pretty sure any 10 year old would be angry at you and be wanting to kick things.

Violence can just as easily be provoked from frustration and anger as it can from violent media. This is proved by the existence of violence long before TV, movies, video games & books.

"Why can't you be more like the other mothers?", your son is a smart boy.

Darren, Melbourne, Australia

Surely there are worse things to protect the kids from?

Ben, York,

What, I got this game when I was 10. I'm fine. I'm school captain and this game has no effect on me. Beside if you do to much th police come after you.

Jerome, Woodville,

Let us be honest though; at the age of ten, having been deprived of a new (and therefore automatically favoured) toy, who wouln't be in the mood to beat the proverbial out of any convenient inanimate object?

JsD, Lincoln,

I'm right with the son's views in the last paragraph. It is up to parents to instil a hatred of violence, and for games like this to provide a safe outlet for the natural aggression that every child has. If they're gritting their teeth and using cartoon characters to express their aggression then they aren't beating anyone up or screaming abuse at adults. If parents haven't taught their children the difference between cartoons and reality that's their failure.

Jean Jones, Edinburgh,

A cartoon version of Grand Theft Auto? Except that unlike GTA, there is actually a point to all the missions (to save the world, no less, rather than just being a pimp picking up drugs and prostitutes) and, more importantly, no-one actually dies or is even injured. There is no shooting or stabbing, and running people over is far from essential - and just gets the police chasing you, making the game harder. Also - violence in a cartoon game... violence in a cartoon... cartoon violence? Hardly that shocking, surely?

As a 17 year old gamer who has never driven recklessly or shot, stabbed or attacked anyone, whether in the street or while breaking into a top secret research facility, I'm sick of people blaming video games for society's problems. As with all stuff like this - films, music, games - you have to remember one thing - IT'S NOT REAL. If your sons can't tell the difference between reality and virtual reality, don't blame the games that the rest of us seem to be able to cope with

sam, farnham, UK

omg carm down i have played that game and its not bad, you really need to stop thinking your kids are 4 years old, how will they grow up ????

sam, leicester, leicestershire