I hate kids, so I hate finding out the person that just wiped my raid 3 times in a row is 10 years old. The game is T for Teen, but even 13 can be too young. For every 200 immature kids who make gaming less fun, there's only one who knows what he/she is doing and can act like an adult. It's bad to stereotype, but I've seen it enough to know.

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hmm, dunno, when I stated playing 2 years ago as 25 years old, I quickly found a 12 years old boy who filled me in on the basics of the game, which seemed slightly weird to me. Given the amount of random slur, sexists jokes, stupid people etc I don't think I'd be comfortable myself letting my kid play on his own, but then again, they also shouldn't watch news, violence related movies or listen to hiphop :p
At least some initial guidance on why some people are too stupid to write sensible things.
The world at the moment is so filled with sexual content and violence that is very accessible with very little effort, that I think in terms of protecting your child there is worse things out there really. On the plus sides comes strengthening your language (especially if English is not the child 1st language) and broadening your horizons. Mark that this only applies if done "right", but that applies to life in general in my opinion.
Parents should be mindful of the amount of time the kid plays, as well as what is going on, so taking a bit time out of schedule once in a while and watch what really happens, and how the kid socializes ingame etc would be a very good idea. Of course I am biased, as I played Doom/Wolf at around age 8, and I like to believe that never did me no harm :D

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"For every 200 immature kids who make gaming less fun, there's only one who knows what he/she is doing and can act like an adult"

I can say the same for many of the adults I've played with too.

I have 10 yr old and a 12 yr old that play. At first I spent most of their play time right there with them so I could teach them what is/isn't accepted behavior. Neither has a toon over lvl 32 and I doubt they ever will because they get bored and start new toons constantly. So, I don't have to worry about them whiping raids and upsetting those who take this GAME too seriously. In fact, they've run all the 5 man instances (Horde and Alliance) up through SM so many times each they get upset at other players (kids and adults) who cause them to whipe. They know the instances better than I do!

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I would love to have my 7yr old son playing. I would have to do some manipulation of his chat channels but I think it would be a good way to increase his reading comprehension at an early age. Of course there are always limitations when playing games but I could see some good in letting younger kids play.

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I was never much of a game player as a kid. The only game I was ever any good at was Defender on the Atari. As soon as Nintendo came out with those multi-buttoned game controlers I was completely useless. I haven't used a game console since. So my teen years as well as my twenty's were lived sans video-games. Maybe thats why I just don't equate video games to children.

WOW is a little weird as video games go. It really is a virtual world made up of all types of people, good and bad. It is an online chat room, a video game, a social networking activity. Like the real world, children should be supervised at varied degrees. It can be as addictive as a drug for adults, for unsupervised children even more so. And has anyone seen exactly how much booze related partying is going on in this game? Do we need to be teaching 13 year olds that EVERY PARTY MUST INCLUDE GETTING DRUNK?

You can turn on a mature language filter, sure, but unlike chat logs in IM programs, a parent can't really keep track of what kinds of conversations their kids are having with total strangers, and thats just the text and doesn't even open debate on the voice chat system. At the very least, parents NEED to pay very close attention to what is going on in this game with their kids.

On the topic of kids, and are they annoying? Well, the answer is, some. I was hiking up a mountain on Super Bowl weekend out in Phoenix, nice weather there, and some kid, maybe 8 years old was hiking about 40 yards in front of his mom and dad and said, "Good morning sir." I was practically shocked. I haven't heard a polite kid in a decade. The point is that there are some out there. And same goes for in game. There are some teens that need duct tape over their mouths and their keyboards locked away. I wish they would shut the hell up. And some that are very good at the game, that have taught me a thing or two, who are willing and very capable of leading raids, and do so without all the childish goofing off. I'm happy to go to war with them any day. Not any night though, because I'm tired of kids having to log off because it is past their bed time. :o)

Like it or not, kids are here to stay, which means that for the rest of my life I'm going to be going to stores, dentist offices, doctors offices, motor vehicle departments, movie theaters, and on and on, and almost always have at least one thought of "can't that person control stick tape over that kids mouth," or "I swear to GOD I'm going to spank that snot nosed little fartknocker if his dad doesn't shut him up." Its a fact, kids are here to stay. They're everywhere, like little cockroaches. At least in WOW I can ignore them if I want.

Or am I too cynical?

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My 12 y.o. brother plays WoW and he knows how to play pretty well. He has a lvl 70 lock and a lvl 60 druid and has a pretty good knowledge about loot, specs and classes.

He only doesn't raid much because we live in Brazil and we are 3 hours ahead of our server time, so raids usually start too late for my mom to let him play :P But we raided Gruuls together sometimes and in no way he was a liability. I just only had to help him understand the raid leader instructions and everything went fine (though he can read english well, he is not used to talk to people in english yet)

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My 6 year old son has a level 28 hunter and an account of his own (and has grinded almost 150 gold so far for himself :) ). He can't read or write english, so chat channels aren't a problem yet :) I don't think there's anything in those that he can't watch - it's like TV - the important thing is that parents discuss what is happening and what's said with their kids. We don't let him group with people, and only let him join battlegrounds while we're sitting next to him. Oh and before anyone spews the 'kids that age should do physical activities' line - he goes to karate training several times a week, and spends hours every day playing on the playground. I think it's cool he likes playing WoW as one of his pastimes :)

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Honestly, it's the same as the sanitization of Hollywood: Many films primed to be blockbusters are required to be filmed as or trimmed down to PG-13 to get that kiddie money. I'm a little tired of the bubblewrapping and beatification of children. I want my rated R Die Hards back, without babies in the theatre after 9pm.

I'm not saying ban youths, but I am saying I'd like to see *parenting* as a crucial part of the equation, something you can tell is often lacking if a kid is causing problems. (exceptions duly noted) If the child is mature and contributing, I have absolutely no problems with kids playing WoW regardless of age. If it's a whining, swearing, camping, ninja-looting pustulant snotrag, I don't care if it's ten or forty, get it off my server. And my lawn.

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Well, my 2 year old son loves watching me play "bawk bawk horsey" (his name for the game, ever since he first saw me on a mount doing the /chicken emote). We started with him watching me fly an alt back and forth on a small flight path, and he loved pointing out the mountains and snow, the hot lava, the trees, the water, and the castle. At almost 3 now he enjoys sitting on my lap and using the arrow keys to move my alt back and forth, off a ledge into the water, or to spin around in place. A friend of mine has a 5 year old who he lets wander around Stormwind, and before he knew it, the 5 year old had memorized the location of everything in the town (and found a way to buy a sword even after his dad had destroyed the one that came with the character).

I don't know at what age I'd be comfortable allowing him to play on his own, but I just wanted to say that it's surprising how much fun there is in WoW for toddlers learning to use their imagination to explore a world, and learning to use the mouse and keyboard.

Now, if I could just teach him how to fish, I'd be all set!

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I PUGed with a party the other day and was pleasantly surprised to find out that the healer (one of the best PUG priests I've ever run with) was an 8 year old girl. The other party members were the girls parents and a cousin/relation. I thought that was a great idea, why not let them have their own account and play alongside them? That way you see any chat they do and if the geniuses in general/trade are getting filthy you can reach over and turn it off on their screen.

Also, maybe there's an addon out there that helps filter some of the filth that sometimes floods channels.

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There is no 'to young' messured in age if you ask me, as long as your able to comunicate and type your really not that to young. On other hand there is quite a few out there who is even 16+ who behave like little kids, those however I classify as TO young.

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I don't see how anybody would let their kids play this game. I don't even think I would let teenagers play. WoW should be considered an adult related game like something you would get at a porn shop. The way people talk and behave is very bad. If you let your kids play this game they will be exposed to some of the worst things imaginable. I would like to give some examples but they are just so bad you can't repeat them.

Maybe if you played with them and set up their chat so that they could only talk in your family/friends guild. Never let them interact with random people. You need to treat wow like the real world. You would never let your kids just hang out at a bar.

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