Even though I agree that these games are violent and I wouldn't let my child play them, I would not go so far as to call Children's Services. That's a little much in my opinion. If she allows her child to play the games, that's between her and the father. They'll need to hash it out between the two of them.

I can speak as someone with three boys who are very into XBox. First, Halo is fine for a 9 year old. There is no real blood. You're killing aliens. It's very cartoony. I'm fine with my 8 year old playing that game.

XBox live...absolutely not ok for your 9 year old. The language that they'll hear on-line would make a sailor blush. It really is that bad. But as long as he stays off line, Halo isn't that bad.

The only way you'll know whether a game is ok is by playing it. There are rated M games that are just horrible..."Left for Dead", "Gears of War", "Call of Duty", "Grand Theft"...those types of games are very graphic and very violent. Then there are some that leave you wondering why they are rated T or M. Sometimes I really think they are given M ratings simply to encourage older kids to purchase them.

I think if you called Child Protective Services to complain about a 9 year old playing any video game, they would take the report, and throw it into the garbage. And if you ended up in court over it, that kind of stuff pisses judges off like nothing else.

Unfortunately, we don't get to control what happens in the other parent's house. I'm not crazy about violent video games. And I used to get furious when my husband's ex let my stepson play violent rated M games. However, her house....her rules. You won't win this one.

If you have questions about specific games, I'll be happy to answer. But Halo really is one of the milder video games. And Halo Reach is just too cool!

It's true there's not a lot of kid friendly games on the xbox, but honestly alot of the "teen" rated ones are pretty mild. Like maybe a character says "damn" a couple times and that's why they rated it "teen." We let SD5 play some of those games, she knows what bad words are. Now if they use the f word like the "mature" games, that's different. I don't want her exposed to that word yet. Though honestly if they're in public school they'll hear it soon enough anyway. Like someone else said, the only way to know is to play the game, and I don't believe parents should use video games as a babysitter, so one of us is always with her when she plays a game anyways. So we know immediately if it's not age appropriate. But my husband has tons of xbox 360 games, so I'm willing to help if you have a question about a specific one as well. Hope I helped you.