When speaking on this topic in anything, movies, music, books, games, etc. I sorta have to disclose that my parents didn't really pull any punches or put down rules about what we could watch as very very young children. I mean to the point where most parents who hear about the stuff I was watching as a little girl are horrified by the prospect. (Who shows a little girl terminator, trainspotting, and the mummy?) So I know that I'm essentially very biased, but they never really minded much about that stuff when we were young.
To speak for the little girl I was, I adored the terminator. I'd watch it almost weekly and I liked it very much indeed. I recently rewatched it with my little brother only to find that it contains a lot more sex than the zero sex I recall. It also is way more given to brutality and gore than I ever remember. And I still can tell you what five year old me would have summarized the movie as: it's a movie about a bad robot who is played by a guy with a funny voice chasing after a very brave girl who is kinda terrible at fighting robots and a guy who comes from the future. Oh right, the robot is also from the future and something about the entire human race's future is at stake and it's pretty cool and I like the music and the fighting is neat, but not too scary. Really, if you'd asked me as an adult until this most recent watching, I would have told you it contained zero nudity, zero swearing, zero sex, and pretty mild violence.
And I realize, this is because I think most adults get their jollies up about sex, swearing, violence, and nudity...but to most children that stuff is very very banal or boring. And it makes a lot of sense why.
Take Nudity, most little children regularly see their parents naked because they need constant supervision and their parents still need showers and to dress. They have no shame about their own nudity and often will bathe with others or just run around starkers like it is no big deal.
Why would seeing another human naked be anything at all to speak of to a young child? That's a conceit of adulthood that boys and girls shouldn't be naked.
The same can equally be said of violence. Only adults believe violence does not solve problems. Any toddler knows if you hit the block or the gate hard enough it will fall. They know there is a real satisfaction in clocking someone who has made them mad. The idea it is wrong is usually something that has to be trained into them or develops over time.
Swearing also isn't that fascinating because all words are new and interesting. Why would saying **** be any more interesting than terminator to a little girl? They both get shouted lots by angry people.
And while sex is probably the most interesting, they also have no context to appreciate it as something private or impolite. It's just about as useful as the talking scenes or a basic kiss.
Mostly, we probably literally won't remember much of any of this unless it is highlighted to us as something adults do.
And I recall the same about games. I also think this idea children cannot be put near frightening material is astonishingly stupid. I found tomb raider's wolves horrifying, but it didn't stop my father from giving me the opportunity to choose to play for myself. I still have nightmares about mummies, but I could have left when they were watching it.
So whether you're a soft-hearted kid or not, I just don't see a good reason that kids shouldn't get to play any game at all from Bioshock to Grand Theft Auto. And if you don't like those games upon exposure, go back to mario, who cares. At least you got to see it and give it a shot in a safe and loving environment.
I also tend to think exposure over time helps with stuff like this. I take it like my job visiting mums with new babies. At first it was weird to talk to a woman who wasn't my mother while she had her tatas all out and was feeding a baby, now I hardly notice or think anything of it.
if we wanted kids to be less afraid, I think normalizing this stuff a bit in a controlled and safe environment would go a long way.
