At what age do you introduce a child to gaming?

[Grim]

My little boy Gabriel is already obsessed with games, and yes, it's my fault - for being obsessed with games myself...

He's 4 and a half and he has already completed Journey on PS3, mastered Super Mario on Nintendo DS, cracked Lego Batman, can go for a ride in Watch_Dogs on PS4 (I let him drive under my supervision as long as he promises not to run civilians down). We also played Mirror's Edge together and both since became fans of James Kingston and various parkour experts, Far Cry 3 (but instead of shooting we just rode jeeps and jet skis in non-aggressive way, not using the guns) and Minecraft... but for obvious reason I try to avoid violent games, even though I personally like those the most (I can only play them at night these days). He even likes to listen to me telling him about games I used to play as a kid!;) And despite being exposed this way to games he has never really shown any sings of aggression or behaved badly at school. He's a really good boy actually, sensitive for needs of others and very caring, loves reading and playing with real toys, and I'm hoping that when he grows up we can still share this passion for video games. It would be awesome if he does!;)

[Athabel]

One of my little guys is a year and a half and already is obsessed with my iPhone. I have this little "My Horse" game on it, where you can tap the screen to pet it, groom it and feed it etc. He loves to hear the noise of gaining exp or the horse munching on a carrot. He knows he's the one influencing the gameplay, which makes him very proud of himself (lol). I'm happy to let my kids mess around with little games like that or educational games as well.. might not introduce them to PC stuff til they're a little older. I don't think my laptop would appreciate them pounding on the keyboard

[Adeel]

I just remembered something which is quite appropriate for this topic. Let me share it with you guys:

About an year ago, I was tutoring a kid who was around 12 - 14 years old. The games he used to play (according to him)) were GTA Titles (i.e. Vice City and San Andreas) and Facebook Flash Games. After a while, I found that he was having difficulty in hearing! On interrogation, he revealed that he used to play games with "headset" on. Knowing how careless kids can be, I immediately ordered him to not to use them any longer. I also called his parents to put the headset out of his reach. His hearing got better after a month!

Around that time, I also found drawing of guns and men-carrying-guns in his notebook. This, actually, was worrying for me. He was getting too inspired from such games! Unfortunately, I was unable to do anything in this case. Because I knew that the damage had been done already. He had been playing those game for years. This got me thinking that parents leave their little kids to the computer, thinking that they would keep playing and wouldn't bother them, but they forget that this also puts a negative impact on them.

So, even though I personally believe that video games don't make children violent, it's quite wise to keep them off the violent games till they are 16, at least.

[Babar]

Hahah..I had a similar kid I was tutoring (who was maybe 13? Whatever the age before you start studying for GCSEs). I used to tutor him in his home, and once when I got there he was playing one of the GTA games. After watching him smackdown pedestrians for money for a few seconds, I asked which GTA it was. He said "One of them".

Later while I was tutoring him, he told me it was "Ballad of Gay Tony", which he didn't want to say, because his mother had been in the TV room with him when I asked.

[faerieevenstar]

Well my brother and I literally used computers as soon as we could sit up in front of them... You'd think there's not much you can do when very small, but I learnt how to read and spell on my BBC Micro I'd sit and watch my brother or dad use them and then have a go myself, and they'd tell me which keys to press, it's probably even easier now with the user friendly-ness of modern computing. Of course there are also worse games that kids can be exposed to now too.. though I found the "rude" version of Frak and played Leisure Suit Larry when I was a bit older and turned out ok *twitches* *swats the imaginary bugs crawling on her*. I remember my dad being shocked that we got onto the boat in Leisure Suit Larry 2 because he didn't think we could get that far, and he was really angry that we'd seen the lady with the whips. Heheh. Though we were never allowed to play really violent games then... but in my opinion, violence is more of a concern than sex for children (though neither is good for a little one, but that's a whole other parenting debate)

Sorry I got off topic, but you're never to young to learn, but use caution with what you expose them to I suppose... I have even seen stuff to help little ones learn how to code before now You're more receptive to learn languages of any kind as a child than an adult, so something to remember

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/lists/coding-apps-and-websites
http://www.tynker.com/
(note- I know nothing about these games and apps, just that they exist)

[ChestPecRespect]

I remember when I was 3 I used to just sit and watch my brother play. At age 4 they taught me how to set up the SNES, connecting it to the cable slot and play. At 5-6ish they taught me how to get games to run in MS DOS mode. By the time I was 7.5-8 my brother got me Diablo 1 and I would just bring the cd and install it wherever there was a PC. My mom's office, computer lab...

These days phones double as gaming devices so it's more accessible to kids.
From what I can observe with my nephew and nieces is that at age 0-1.5ish they just like to take your phone and throw it. At 1.5-3 they start to actually open the apps and play.

[TheBitPriest]

For myself, I started programming in general around age 8 on a TRS-80, but I started getting into game development in high school.  Most of my time was spent on technical details like getting sprites on the screen at 30 fps.  That was the late 80s.

Starting with a system like AGS is rewarding for kids.  My four oldest have all put something together (appropriate to their age) after watching the tutorial videos.  Ages 12, 11, 9, and 7. 

[Queen Kara]

I don't remember how old I was when I was first found out about games and stuff. I know I grew up playing Sierra , ascii art games , Infocom , ect. but I don't know what age I was when I really got into it. I know that I didn't try my hand or coding or anything though when I was a kid...it wasn't until I was older that I started trying my hand at making games...like maybe middle or late twenty-something or and all through my thirty-something years I've been interested in and have wanted to make games. I'm just very bad at really getting anything done beyond text documents and maybe some art most of the time.

I think it's important for parents and other adults to take real responsibility if they are going to let kids have games. Of course it all depends on the games themselves, the kids age and how well the kid understands various things , setting down some rules and boundaries , ect. Just because I don't have kids myself doesn't mean I don't ever think about these kind of things and other adults , especially parents...need to understand that about single people / non-parents. Unfortunately people get real defensive and over-react to stuff when people like me start complaining about kids and parents / what's bad parenting and what good parenting is.

I usually don't like it when people blame parents for every little stupid thing their kids say or do. Because...no, it's not always the parents fault. Sometimes parents end up with bad kids , it's not their fault. It's their kids that are making bad decisions and doing or saying stupid things , not them. I try to have sympathy for parents even though I sometimes think poorly of people with kids and blame them for stuff but usually if I am blaming the parent it IS because the parent , in my opinion, should've never been allowed to have kids and obviously don't know how to raise kids up right...blah blah blah...

And then of course there are the parents who mean well but just can't get through to their kids no matter what they say or do because you can't control everybody , not even your own kids, no matter how badly you may want to. I feel for those parents, I really do.

And lastly there are the parents who truly don't deserve to have kids because they are so messed up themselves and don't know the right way to act around other people - ( or they do and don't care )  , let alone their own children and hit them or worse. They are the worst parents in the world...I feel for the children then and hate those kind of people. Then there's certain types of people it's hard to feel sorry for because they are drug addicts or something and when they are on the drugs or drunk they get violent and stuff and that's why they were horrible to their kids...that sort of thing....I am very anti-booze culture and drug culture because it destroys so many lives and people can and usually do lose any goodness in them when they hit rock bottom like that and become addicted to drugs or alcohol. And from what I know and have seen a lot of people who smoke are mean. Not saying they are in the same category as people addicted to drugs or alcohol...but...just saying a lot of people who smoke are mean and it makes me sad when nice people smoke. I'm glad I'm not addicted to drugs or alcohol or cigars and cigs.

[vertigoaddict]

I don't exactly remember when I started playing games either, I guess the earliest recollection would be around 4. There was minesweep (I didn't know what I was doing but I liked seeing things "explode"). Pac-man, Pinball and then there were some adventure games I don't remember the name to (Something about a king, 'course that doesn't narrow it down at all), some kind of Cluedo-esque adventure game, Prince of Persia, Casper adventure game based on the movie (one on the PC and then there was a PS version later on in the future) this snoopy/ Peanuts game I'd spend hours on (which were really just a collection of memory and patch the colours sorta game).
When the Playstation came out (from 6-7 ish) the world of gaming just expanded for me (my brother didn't like sharing his Sega  and I only watched my cousins played on theirs), Pandemonium, Oddworld, Earthworm Jim, Tenchu, Resident Evil, Final Fantasies, Legend Of Mana, Valkyrie Profile, Vagrant Story, Suikouden, Shoulin, Parappa the rapper, Bust a groove (Oh my god loved that one), Legend of Legaia, Legend of Dragoon, Tomba, Brave fencer Musashi, Tomb Raiders (of course), yadda yadda, list goes on. I think that was when I conciously played games I knew were probably not suited for my age.
Now that I think about it, I don't think I've ever really completed a game back then, I don't remember the first game I've completed. I either completed Silent Hill at age 10 or 13.
Sorry, goin' off at a tangent here.

My niece and nephews are playing simple app games (like washing or painting a car) age ranges from 2-7 so I'd say 2 is okay (with innocent cutesey, simple, possibly educational games with lots of colours), though if I ever had kids, I'd wait till they're at least around 4 (with simple games), that's just a personal preference.

On another note, it's difficult to prevent children from getting their hands on games (or any other kind of media) you don't want them to, so if I do have children, I'll make it a point to teach them, make sure they understand the difference between fantasy and reality.