A lot of money can be wasted if people don't watch video games which are in the range of children. Often, they throw the games around causing them to get scratched. Of course, in the past, this wasn't a problem as the games were not on CDs. However, now I would never allow kids to be alone with more than one game, and that game should be in the gaming system, not outside of it. Finally, we have to also mention the fact very young kids can sometimes misuse game systems. For instance, they might pour water or jelly into the system. Even though this stuff may sound funny, it can cost a lot of money.
This is what happens exactly! Not only game CD's, they will spoil any CD which is under their jurisdiction. At my home, there're many such discs which are making peculiar sounds on play as they're been mishandled. It is always not possible for me to play the CD's for them and when the onus is on them, the poor storage devices are on their mercy.
I suggest you keep the console somewhere unreachable so if they want to use it, you can put in the CDs yourself instead of them. That way, the only thing they handle is the controller. Make sure you have a special wireless remote just for them and make it clear that if they break it, they won't be able to play because that's the only control they can use. That should save you more than a few bucks.
Before the advent of online video games and any form of animated games played, we had a family game computer which is inserted by a tape of gadget which contains several games. Our kids don't know how to operate them. So I was the one who did it. As they were used, I trusted them to do it by them. And they're very careful to handle those games. Now games in CDs, we have several of them. They're played in CD/DVD player with a corresponding joystick or player tool. It is good we didn't find any trouble with them. They knew how to take care it.
The Atari Flashback, NES Classic, and Sega Classic game consoles are systems that have games built in. They don't even have those cartridges which kids cannot scratch. Basically, the risk that kids could tear up that system is very low and only the youngest kids might pour water or jelly into them. Note, obviously, the graphics of newer games are of much higher quality. Nonetheless, some of those old games are still massively fun for kids to play. Finally, these vintage gaming consoles are usually way cheaper than systems which play newer games.
My wife's younger brother plays with anything round, so we keep our CDs out of sight. there was one time that he found them and guess what? All the CDs were scattered everywhere and most of them aren't playable anymore because of the scratches that were made.
I have had that happen a while ago when I used to babysit a boy. He was only 6 years old and he owned his own game console and games. His parents let him use it when ever he pleased so when I babysat him he would throw the discs around as if they were freesbies but the parents didn't seem to mind. Now that I have my own child I keep expensive items out of her reach as I have learned things the hard way when she broke my PC keyboard.
In that sense kids are kind of like pets. You have to be careful what you leave lying around as their curiosity will usually get the best of them and they need to investigate.