Quote Originally Posted by Timbuk2 View Post
As Zig asked, what harm do you see as having come to the child. Not what might have come.
Harm right now? Apparently none. The thing is saying "it's just a game" doesn't go as far with a 4 y/o as it does with someone older. Real life and "games" are a lot closer together. So yeah, I'd be worried about some small degree of internalization, from the reaction to accidentally running over a woman, grabbing parked cars *least worrisome* and taking those emergency vehicles when their drivers were out of them.The game's interaction is not just "I'm a firefighter" but "I can go out and fight fires now." And it's not like the kid wasn't engaging in any violent behavior in the game. He WAS doing Vigilante missions. Do I think the child is warped for the rest of his life? No, of course not, but there is the possibility that the game can affect him negatively, particularly if he plays it more than this one time with his father watching. Along that same vein I seem to recall that a child that age is still in the range where you have to be worried about how the TV interacts with a young child's need for stimulation.