Hi Gang,I thought i`d ask this question here as there seems to be a lot of knowledable bods who could give me an answer.
As a father of two (eleven and three) the youngest uses his DVD`s as skates and then puts them in the DVD player - can badly scratched discs damage the player ?.
I was wondering this and thought i`d ask here to satisfy my curiosity.

Complete guess here, but it would seem not since there is no physical contact between the laser reading light and the base of the CD/DVD. Of course, there's little likelihood you'll get the discs to play well, it at all, after the abuse your kids put on them.

Time to get the kids some frisbees!

I've experienced similar problems. I think the DVD player will simply skip over the scratches and won't read the disc. But, even very small, fine particles of dirt/dust/cereal/crayons will eventually get into the machine and ruin it. Kids are pretty quick to observe and learn how to do the things we do with home electronics. The only way to safeguard things is to lock them up. Good luck.