We can't even put our hands on children in this game. I don't really care because I don't go on killing sprees and want to murder kids, but I understand it's an issue.

I found a book in a vampire cave, can't remember what it was called or what cave it was in (probably not the rarest of books, either, only worth ~5 gold). It was about a gifted kid who summoned a dremora to do his bidding. The dremora asked if he wanted a soul gem, and the kid said yes. The dremora then casted soul trap on the kid and ripped his heart out of his chest, soul trapping him in a black soul gem.

That's kinda... distasteful, don't you think Bethesda? I mean, we can't even punch a kid, but you're telling stories about demons ripping their hearts out still beating.

XD I agree and its like ok we have heard stories of kids being torn apart and burned alive and now one having their soul trapped into a soul gem YET we can't hurt them at all? Hypocritical much?

maybe dremora are exempt from the ethereal unharmable children rule?

We can't polish spears either.

The reason you can't harm children is so the idiots from Media wouldn't get a chance to cause trouble. Since the same people usually don't know how to read or play games, in-game texts don't matter.

Meh.

really hated not being able to kill the kids
some of them are so annoying
do like the ones in solitude though, can play games with em and everything
but that annoying little brat in whiterun really needs to die!

I found a mass grave of children in the game. So you can FIND dead children, READ about dead children, MURDER as a favor for children, but you cannot KILL children. But it is like Akul says, its the media's fault, not Bethesda's. Bethesda would be crucified in the media and amongst the politically correct crowd, so they wisely choose just to avoid the issue all together.

word!

it's apparently okay to have a child doing the black sacrament in solitude for you to kill an evil woman at an orphanage. I mean, you have this kid at a pentagram and there's a skeleton, human flesh and a human heart right there and this kid is praying to the Night Mother. But it's not okay to (insert against the rules comment here).

I can honestly say killing children has never crossed my mind in any game... Why would you want to?

Why can't they just go unconsious? Or "downed"? We're not technically killing them and I want to give some specific children the punishment they deserve. Time to go to your ROOM!
Edit: I haven't tried attacking a child, so I don't know if they go downed or not. If they do, then this post is pointless.

This. The media eats up this kind of [censored]. Just recall what happened with the GTA Hot Coffee scenario. This would be x10 worse

Oh that little spoilt brat, she's getting on my nerves. "I'm not afraid of you."

Go die kid.

I have to agree that little brat in Whiterun is annoying. Oh you're not afraid of me? We'll just see about that.

did it hurt the game in any way shape or form?
was one of the best selling titles of it's generation

or mass effect 2?
gta 4?
or cod with it's airport scene
all did pretty damn well despite (or perhaps thanks to) all the negative publicity

any publicity is good publicity

shame it didn't seem to work for the witcher
perhaps not mainstream enough

I haven't tried killing one either. Now I'm curious to see what happens.

Apples and oranges. Killing kids would get the game an AO rating in the US, turning off a significant portion of its playing community. For a game like TES that would be an unacceptable drop in profit.

That's a pretty standard "Be careful what you wish for" fairytale.

No, but San Andreas cost Rockstar oodles of money because they had to RECALL the game and were forced to destroy those copies, and the game had to be re-rated advlts Only, which is the kiss of death.

And no, "any publicity is good publicity" isn't true. Let me spell it out for you:

Tonight on Fox News, "Skyrim - just a video game or a child murder simulator? Are child molesters and pedophiles attracted to this game? We'll hear from our commentators . . ."

Afterwards, you mentioning Skyrim around non-gamers will result in variations or questions of this: "Oh my god! You play that game? You like killing kids or something!?"

Just a reminder though guys... I do believe that even mentioning the harm of children on the forums is against the rules and they are very harsh and strict about it... That is why I didn't even mention it in my reply. I understand your reasons for discussing it as I find it ridiculous as well (not that I want to do it but there are B.S. double standards here) but I see the mods closing this topic soon.

I am going to the media with this. I hope this story blows up bigger than hot coffe and Skyrim gets an AO rating. Thanks for doing the leg work for me Arthur. You can get the credit for the firestorm that is coming.

That bit totally creeped me out. I felt like someone at Bethesda was essentially making some social commentary regarding the raising of children and the impact an unhealthy childhood environment makes... no surprise to anyone, it can mess you up, but that human heart bit really took me aback. I'm not suggesting that they should not have put it in there. I was just shaken and surprised by it, which was probably the intention.

If we aren't allowed to kill children, can't we at least send their souls to the shadow realm or something like that?