At What Age Did You Let Your Child Start Playing Video Games?

I have 3 children all under the age of nine with the youngest being three. We have a Wii, two DSs, and a Leapster. We let them play on the weekends with some exceptions during the week and they see it as a reward for completing chores or being on good behavior. Thankfully they are not into the violent games because I won't stand for them but rather into the singing games and the "pet" games where you have to take care of animals and grow them. Believe it or not, I think that the singing games help them with their reading and the pet games with responsibility :)

I don't have my own kids, but I am an uncle and I let my nieces play every game they want, and we let them play since they were very young. (when they were two years old), now they are 4 and 8. We used to play Mortal Kombat with all the blood and gore displayed, and now they play Unreal Tournament... I think that with the right approach, and with the right education there is no need to be worried about what children play. There is no need to limit their playing time, the kids know by themselves when is enough. My nieces love to play at the children's playground and love long walks. I play violent games frome early age, and never had problems with dividing right from bad and good from evil. Playing violent games doesn't make us violent, it's the bad parents and unhealthy family. So, don't focus on wrong things. You can say I am wrong, but my older niece is good at school, has friends, loves animals and watches cartoons... Playing violent games didin't turn her into a bad kid. That can do only her parents and people around her. Of course, I still didin't let them play Doom 3, nor I played it when they were around. And even that it wasn't "to protect them from violence", but simply because it would have scare them. Honestly, if they ask me one day to play it, I'd let them play.

My daughter is 4 and has had the Vtech V.Smile game since she was about 3 ½ years old. She really likes to play and that I like her playing it because it is very educational. We bought a Wii this year and have started playing the bowling game as a family, but that is it. My daughter is young, so we limit the amount of video games she can play and they have to be educational in nature.

When my boys were probably 4, 6 and 8, they all got gameboys. They were a Godsend when we took long trips in the car. I never really had to limit them playing, they didn't spend hours and hours on them. My daughter got a leapster when she was 4 and it was the best video game ever for kids:) I didn't care if she was on it all day, the games are educational. Now my boys are 20,17,15. They mostly play guitar hero and very rarely. They are too busy working and doing sports.

My son had a Playstation bought for him when he was 2. He was way too young for it then. He did not really get into playing video games until he was around 6 years old. He has a PS2 right now.

My daughter has a v-tech. Her uncle bought it for her for Christmas last year. She was 4. It plays educational video games.

my son is 4 and he plays almost every game system you can think of from xbox to playstation, wii, nintendo ds, etc. of course i only get him games that are suitable for him. he tries to play his dads halo game when i am not lookin but i caught it right on time.

This never came up. My daughter played around with Nintendo when she was 2 but never got serious about it. She's known how to work the computer since she was 3 and accesses educational and non violent games that way. Last Christmas my sister n law bought her a Gameboy Advance. She's just now gotten interested in playing it and I limit the time its used. She's 9 now. The only game she likes is Shrek.