I was playing "Tomb Raider - A survivor is born", mostly late at night when my 1- and 3- year-olds are in bed. But the other day I fired up the game early in the evening. My 1-yo son was close to the TV when I started playing. Lara was high up on a cable-transport platform when she was attacked. Pinned to a wall and about to be nailed with an arrow, suddenly a shot came out of nowhere. The bad guy screamed and fell off the platform where he was standing.
My son suddenly burst into tears. He had been watching and was obviously traumatised by the event. I quickly stopped playing and comforted him. All the while making the mental note: Gosh, he's barely a week more than one-year old. I didn't realise how much he would comprehend the scene in the game.
Suffice to say that now, not only do I never play Tomb Raider whilst my children are around. I am now acutely aware of the need to be always vigilant about what exactly is on TV. Especially in regards to the potential for any violence
So anyway, it's just a story. I'm not trying to make a stand about violence in video games. Obviously we become quite desensitised to the level of violence when we play/watch and it took that episode to make me realise how much I need to protect my kids from that violence until they are older. I'm now much more attentive to the TV ratings when a program is starting, and to be honest, there's basically very little (mature programming) we would watch now whilst the kids are still up!
