When I was 10 I saw all 3 die hard movies uncensored, bought them all at age 14 myself in front of my parents (back then they weren't so anal about carding people for movies). I played Doom, Wolfenstein, Blake Stone all equivalent to rated M or 17+ at the age of 7-8. My mom saw how horribly violent the games were asked if I could sleep at night I said yes mom I sleep great. I've played every great rated M game since.
I've never been in a serious fight (I'm not counting elementary and Jr high). I've never been to jail, never had a DUI....my record is completely clean all I have is one lousy traffic ticket. Never done drugs (don't give me that alcohol is a drug crap), got suspending once in high school, few detentions that is it. I turned out perfectly normal.
I agree with Cliff, it really does depend on the child. You could always start off by letting him play single player. See if he is mature enough and if he is perhaps letting him play on-line a few hours a week wouldn't be the worst thing.
Has he played the other Call of Duty games? What is the worst movie (blood/violence) he has seen? I figure thanks to public school systems he is probably already using quite profane language around his friends so that's nothing new. Private schools aren't any better.....kids their do heroin in Jr high. I started cussing at the age of 10-11 around my friends and my parents just said don't say it in front of them or other parents. By the time I was 16 my parents could care less what I said whenever in front of them (of course everyone knows the dreaded C word never goes over well with anyone).
So my suggestion is you gotta start somewhere, let him play single player and see how he does with that. You'll never know how mature your child is unless you test the waters. But don't think no 12 year olds should be playing this game just on age principle.
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