If you spend any time on gaming sites on the Internet, which you obviously do, then you probably didn't miss the heartbreaking trailer for Dead Island. If you did, go watch it now! I'll wait. Good? Good. Then I can go on to tell you that the game is being shown behind closed doors at GDC, and the website Ripten asked them straight out if you would be able to kill children in the game.
The answer was "no", since the devs didn't find it appropriate. From a marketing standpoint, it's probably the right choice, but it's of course a bit sad for the people who thought that the trailer was completely representative of the final product.