I can see both....well, ALL sides of the argument here. There are alot of factors involved and age is only one of them. Its not just kids, though, its wives, GFs, etc as well. Anyone who lacks the experience.
I will say that seeing a picture of a kid with a deer that an older relative held the gun for, tracked and field dressed the animal, but then passed off as "Jimmy's first buck" is a little offputting.
On the other hand, my dad has taken a ton of deer in his lifetime and I would have no qualms with volunteering to take care of alot of the leg work issues for him because his health isn't fantastic.
Absolutely, kids have a place in the field and hunting with their family. I take my 9 year old daughter with me when I can and she is the perfect little hunting buddy. She's not proven she can handle a suitable rifle as yet, so she's still my spotter and tracker-helper. She is, however, a dead-eye shot with her Ruger .22 so as soon as she can fit her arm around the stock of the .243, I'm going to let her pop one.
That said, she has gotten her hands dirty field dressing, learned to follow a blood trail, and how to select which deer to harvest over 2 seasons by my side. I'm not going to hold the gun for her but I'm not going to hand her the knife and gut it on her own either.
I think in the end, every kid is different as is every parent. I like to think my daughters are clever, mature, and thoughtful well beyond their years but I am indeed biased.
This was supposed to be the year, to be honest, but target shooting told me "not yet". A little disappointed but that's silly. I know she is but she told me herself, "Dad, I'm not ready but I can still come with you, right?" And here again, my wife took up the .243 and punched out a decent group and declared she was ready to give it a shot. God knows, she's been elbows deep in helping me butcher a few deer over the years and ground plenty of chili meat with me.