Computer games rated 16+ for 10 yo?

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Posted this in AIBU but might get a response here - just need some opinions really.
DS has just come home from a friends house and has been stroppy all evening because we won't let him play 16+ games at home although he was playing them with a friend at their house. He tells us 'all' his friends are allowed to play them and TBH although it may not be all, I know that quite a few do , and where the mums aren't allowing them to the dads are buying them and still letting them play on them. My DH is on my side with this - but are we being too strict?

You are not being to strict.

DH bought DS (13) a 16 (James Bond) game . Then DH realised it was unsuitable and had to remove it.

My 10 year old DS plays some 16+ rated XBOX games. His older brother has them & if, in our opinion, they are suitable then he is allowed to play them. Most of his friends do have them aswell (I know this because he plays the games with them on XBOX Live).

Thanks Lynette for posting here too - I love your name BTW wish I'd thought of it first

Popoozle how do you decide and how do you justify your decision? We have a budding lawyer so often it's easier to stick to a rule rather than introduce a grey area which opens the floor to debate every time.

What does James Bond do that's unsuitable for a 13 year old? It's not one we have in this house as DS1 is not a fan.

I'm asking out of genuine interest BTW, not at all arguing with you that it is suitable.

Usually, with the sort of games DS1 buys, it's the level of blood & guts. By which, I mean if you see blood & guts it's not suitable. It is a grey area though & we do get the inevitable "but that's no worse than such and such - it's not fairrrrrrrrrrr"! It probably would have been easier just to say "no 16+ games" to be honest. If he didn't have an older brother who bought the games then I'm not sure that we would actually buy them ourselves.

What other things make it a 16+ apart from blood and guts - swearing is a problem for us as DD1 and 2 are 8 and 5 and DD2 wuld almost certsinly run round shouting what she hears on the computer when DS is playing- I know he swears when he's with his friends - DD1 has told me - but I rather not be seen to be condoning it IYKWIM

There are some where you shoot people & you can see that you've killed them (lovely) but no actual blood/exploding brains etc. One I'm thinking of (can't remember what it's called though) is mostly shooting zombies. Also, a car game where you purposely crash into things - that's a 16+ too.

Popoozle, as far as I can tell, it was just a lot of aggressive shooting (I never actually played the game myself - DH did and said he didn't enjoy that level of violence), but I didn't get involved with all this (DH knows I insist on sticking to certificates when it comes to the DC, but obviously thought he knew better, Ha, NOT! DH is also a big James Bond fan) Apparently DS got a bit worked up and miserable during and after playing the game, and DH thought it would be better to stick to age appropriate games, which don't seem to have the same effect.

(I could have told him that, he didn't need to use his own child as an experiment to test my point!)