Having made the same mistake with my oldest, I wish I had mod points for this guy. He is correct. Nurture that which your child is interested in... don't force him into things he has no desire to do. Guess what, maybe you're a coding geek and your son is going to be a football hero. Maybe you're a nuclear physicist, and your son is going to be a used car salesman. There's nothing wrong with any of that, as long as you bring him up correctly... with ethics, morals, respect for others, and ambition.

[Writing a check to "Poorly Hung and Oblivious to It Foundation".]

In honor of you, champ.

Why is this post not modded +5 Insightful? It's spot in, IMO. Well, I have no mod points at present, but if I did, one of them would be yours.

Mod this guy up... he's absolutely correct and to mod him a "troll" is just ignorant.

Ah, yes. Right you are!

"Intruder alert! Chicken! Fight like a robot!"

That wasn't Robotron. Robotron had no speech. You're thinking of either Gorf or Wizard of Wor, I believe. They were both very early games that used the Vortax SC-01 phoneme synthesizer.

If only George Lucas agreed with you....

In the original Quest for Glory game (back when it was named Hero's Quest - not sure about after the name change, but probably) you could get into debug mode by entering "razzledazzlerootbeer"... then there were various numeric codes that would do different neat things.

Unfortunately, it also ruined the game for me because I hadn't finished it "properly" yet. I must go back and play through it correctly one day.

Just an FYI, not all skinheads are neo-Nazis or, for that matter, even racist. In fact, I've known more skinheads who would give you a beating for saying something racist than the type you're alluding to.

Painting with a broad brush is usually not a good idea, no matter what your intentions are.

If we outlaw peanut butter, then only outlaws will have peanut butter.

GAH! Spoiler!!!

Both of these statements are very much what I've been thinking, but I've been unable to put it as succinctly as that. If I hadn't already posted a few times in this thread I'd mod you up.

You'll notice that Dr. Manhattan's exposure was the last in my list, and that was with reason... it was never presented "that way", although some parents would probably find it distasteful whether their kids saw it or not. That's mostly because of our societal mores.

In the meantime, you reminded me of a few more scenes that only the most irresponsible person could assume would be acceptable viewing for an 11 year old:
Cold-blooded murder of a pregnant woman
The entire child killer scene
Young Rorschach biting another boy's cheek off

Not to mention, how is a child supposed to understand the whole theme of Rorschach's mother being a prostitute?

How about Sally having gone back and willingly sleeping with the Comedian AFTER he tried to rape her (and knocked her around)? If a kid is old enough to understand the attempted-rape scene, but not really old enough to grasp just how fucked-up people can be, then that whole theme will confuse the hell out of him (or, worse, her) and maybe plant a terrible seed that will bloom into some warped perceptions.

Let's be honest with ourselves here... kids today, despite being coddled and sheltered from the outside world, are getting more and more fucked up. IMHO, that's because parents aren't paying enough, or the right kind of, attention to their kids. They assume, incorrectly, that there's nothing in their homes that can damage them, and that all the danger is outside, lurking the streets with a trench coat and a bag of lollipops. Meanwhile, they let their young children watch grown-up movies, TV shows, play M-rated video games, and surf the web unsupervised. Nobody wants to lord over their children the way we perceived that our parents smothered us... but, sorry, giving them free reign is a recipe for disaster. The new-age parenting techniques of constant praise and minimal discipline are failing. We've got 12 year old girls dressing like whores. If you let your pre-teen wear a pair of sweatpants with ANYTHING written across the seat, or a t-shirt that says "sexpot" or similar, you are a failure as a parent.

Of course, this is my opinion, and I'm sure I'll get modded down and probably a hundred responses of "my partner and I let our 6 year old use the computer unsupervised and she has never looked at porn and is a polite and independent little treasure!" Great, good luck with that in another 6 years.

Yeah... Star Wars, he knows that's fake... but say, like, Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull... well, it "took place" a long time ago, and to a 9 year old (not to mention a lot of adults), aliens are plausible, etc. In his mind, it could have happened.

Point is, even in something geared more for a younger audience like Spiderman... if a person gets slammed into a brick wall and falls 20 feet to the street below, hitting his head on a dumpster on his way down... he's NOT getting up and shaking it off like in the movies. But, a younger kid isn't going to realize it on his own.