Child drawing disturbing pictures

[Buggirl66502]

My seven year old stepson has been drawing very violent, bloody pictures since playing a video game called HALO with his 13-year-old brother at his mother's home.  He told us they were playing the game while his mother was asleep.  This game is rated M for mature, to be played by people ages 17 and up, and it contains extreme violence, gore, and foul language.  My stepson lives with his father and me and has regular visitations with his mother.  We have no control over what his mother allows him to do when he is visiting her.  My stepson told me that the most recent drawing was "Daddy getting his head blown off".  We have approached his mother and she denies that he even plays the game.  My stepson has indicated that he has been reguarly playing these violent video games at his mother's residence.

Is there anything we can do aside from telling him that it is wrong to play these games?  Should we enter him in counseling?

[Dee330]

Keep him drawing, from my experience they draw their feelings. Then talk to him about the drawings and ask if there is any reason for him being upset. If he is at an age where he starts drawing monsters and things of that nature try to steer him away by getting him involved in other kinds of games about cars, sports, etc.. Explain that Halo is just a video game and that they are fighting fictional aliens, also these games have settings for disabling blood and gore> I own two of the three parts of this game and have not seen anything out of the ordinary, lazer guns and aliens. As for the foul language there was one word used in the beginning of it during the storyline description. Have your husband sit down and play the game with the kids and slowly get him interested in another game. Don't make him stop that will only make you the bad guys, focus on getting his attention on something else, monitor his behavior and his playtime, involve the thirteen year old to help move his focus to other games, the little ones always want to do what the older one does

[Dee330]

Keep him drawing, from my experience they draw their feelings. Then talk to him about the drawings and ask if there is any reason for him being upset. If he is at an age where he starts drawing monsters and things of that nature try to steer him away by getting him involved in other kinds of games about cars, sports, etc.. Explain that Halo is just a video game and that they are fighting fictional aliens, also these games have settings for disabling blood and gore> I own two of the three parts of this game and have not seen anything out of the ordinary, lazer guns and aliens. As for the foul language there was one word used in the beginning of it during the storyline description. Have your husband sit down and play the game with the kids and slowly get him interested in another game. Don't make him stop that will only make you the bad guys, focus on getting his attention on something else, monitor his behavior and his playtime, involve the thirteen year old to help move his focus to other games, the little ones always want to do what the older one does