Introduction
If you’re here, it’s because you’re a parent and are looking for options to help you moderate your child’s online game time. Well, we have several interesting options that can help. All the solutions I will mention have a free version and a paid one if you want to unlock all their features.
Be involved in your kids online game play.
Be involved in your kids online game play. You should be able to understand the game and its content, as well as the game’s rating and parental controls. It is important that you know what your child is doing when they are on these gaming platforms.
Get to know the games they play.
Once you know what they’re playing, talk to them about it. Ask them how they like it and what their favorite part is. Play the game with your child so that you can see how they are interacting with the content. This will make it easier for you to engage in conversation about online games with your children.
Ask questions about their game play: How do they feel about bad guys? What does your character want? Do you want to save a princess or save the world? Is this fun for you or do you get frustrated easily? You may even find yourself having conversations that lead into other topics, such as bullying or friendship issues that come up while playing video games online!
Check the rating on the games.
The first thing you need to do is check the rating on the game. There are a number of ratings systems in place and they each have their own criteria for determining what rating should be given.
The ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) uses a letter-based rating system, with A being the lowest and M the highest.
The PEGI (Pan European Game Information) uses stars instead of letters. The equivalent of an A on PEGI is 3 stars out of 5; an equivalent for E would be 12+ on PEGI
Check Ratings before purchasing a game.
Before you purchase a game, check the rating on it. A Mature rating indicates that the game contains intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language. An Adult Only rating means that the game includes nudity and graphic content intended for adults only.
A Teen rating is given to games with content suitable for ages 13-17. This includes mild references to violence and some crude humor.
A General Audiences (E) rating means that younger children may also play this game if they are accompanied by an adult or playing under supervision of another adult with permission from the parent or guardian of said child.
Make sure you understand parental controls.
While it can be difficult to monitor your child’s video game play, there are ways to do so. It all starts with understanding what parental controls are, and how they work.
- What is parental control?
Parental controls are software or a feature that allows parents to monitor their children’s online activity while they use a computer or gaming system. It restricts access to inappropriate content by age group and time of day. With the right type of parental control set up, you will know what games your kids have downloaded as well as how much time they spend playing them each day.
- What are the different types of parental controls?
There are three main types: time limits (how long a child can play), site blocks (which websites are blocked) and activity logs (a record of what happened during gameplay). Setting these options properly will ensure that your child is not spending too much time staring at screens or accessing inappropriate material, which can lead to health issues in later years such as obesity from lack of physical activity and increased risk for depression due to social isolation caused by too much screen time alone without real human interaction between family members who could otherwise spend quality time together doing something fun outside instead!
Keep your kids safe when playing video games online.
To keep your kids safe when playing video games online, you should:
- Be involved in your kid’s online game play. It’s important to know what kind of content the games have and the types of players who are likely to be playing them.
- Check the rating on the game before purchasing it for your child or their friends. The rating system gives an idea about what kind of content there is in a given game; check out our guide to understanding video game ratings before making any purchases!
- Ensure that you understand parental controls if they are available on consoles or platforms like Steam or Xbox Live.
Conclusion
Remember, when all is said and done, you’ll be better at parenting 🙂