Martial arts is not just competitive fighting, it's discipline.
I think that it is perfectly acceptable for children to learn this art and the discipline it entails. With it comes confidence and�.respect. I would encourage my child to do it if they were interested, but I�m not sure I would really want my child of that age to be involved at a competitive level. I would worry about the short and long term effects on confidence and psychology.
The problem that I found with this in the few minutes that I watched was that the extremely pushy parents considered it to be more of a mass-brawl than any kind of �art� or discipline. Shouting at their kids to hit harder and kick �em some more, really detracts from the essence of the art, especially for impressionable children. And respect goes out of the window with a roundhouse kick. Muay Thai is about technique and focus, many true martial artists spend as much time meditating as they do practicing and working out. I suspect that these parents would ban their children from doing such �poofy� things with preference for some head-punching, nut-kicking practice.
It was sad that many of the children seemed not to be that arsed about partaking, but the arrogance and � quite frankly � selfish and abusive attitude of the parents made the children believe their tears and reluctance to be weakness and shame. And rather than accept defeat, argue about decisions (in the ring) and become a bad loser. Such a role model that father was. What a dick.