Having Kids and Gaming

RealWill

So I'm a parent of two young kids (my oldest is 3) and personally I've been very careful about the types of console games that I play when they are around. It always seemed common sense that if you don't want your kids watching a scary and/or violent movie or show that you wouldn't want them playing or seeing a game like that as well. Having said all of that I feel that I'm in the minority among my friends and family who also have kids. So I wanted to see what other people think. Do you folks pay attention to the ESRB rating? Do you monitor what types of games you play around your kids and what you let them play? If not and you don't mind please say why. For those of you that do monitor the types of games your kids play do you any suggestions for console games for young children that are actually fun? Personally I've found a lot of the classics have the entertainment factor while still being kid friendly. I'd love to hear what others think. Thanks for putting in your two cents!

Gilbrod

Great topic! I am a father of two boys (8,10). They have inhereted everything I have and so forth. I have trained my kids to understand the ESRB rating system, and have also been told them the difference between cartoons and videogames; and real life. They know that they can play anything that says E. My boys are now wanting to play T and M rated games. Depending on what they are, I let them. I think it will say T or M because of how complicated the game could be (Smash Bros, Swords and Soldiers, Hyrule Warriors, Don't Starve, ect). I don't let them play anything horror or graphically gruesome ( The Evil Within, Dying Light, etc) because they end up having nightmares or get scared and can't sleep at night, or are scared to walk in the dark. I let my oldest play Resident Evil 5 with me just to gauge the threshold; and while he had fun, there were some of those lingering effects. Me and my boys will play local Call of Duty and other like games. If they play online, everyone is muted and I don't let them use a mic either. They have been raised around guns and know to respect them. They also know that the people in the game aren't real. I have explained what could happen if they shoot someone with that many bullets. They understand that gunshot wounds won't go away if they stay still for a few seconds. If there is a lot of cursing, I won't let them play said game. In the end, I am the parent. I feel it's my job to monitor what they do. There's enough negative influence out in the real world. I don't need our hobby to bring any more. Now when he's older, and he buys his own games with his own money, that's on him. Until then, my home my rules type thing. And so far, it's working great. Good luck and enjoy your future gaming partner.

RealWill

Thanks for the response! I remember when I was the age of your kids the ESRB either did not exist, or if it did it wasn't rating games yet. Back then the games that were considered particularly violent were Doom and/or Mortal Kombat and I loved playing them. I can only imagine what it would have been like to have today's games back when I was younger and wonder if more of an effort would have been made to limit what I could and can't play. I know that in addition to the content of the game every kid is also different with what they can handle. I just find it interesting that my friends and family feel the need to monitor and limit certain media that their kids are exposed to (TV Shows, Movies...) but do not pay attention to the kinds of games their kids play. As far as playing online and muting the other players/not letting your kids use the mic I could not agree more! Hell I play with it muted for the most part too unless I'm playing with friends. There is just so much garbage and hate that gets spewed out by people playing the games that I just don't see the need to hear any of it. Thank you for wishing me luck, I'm excited that that my daughter is showing such an interest in games and hope when my son is older he will too (especially since my wife hates video games ha ha)!

FuriousFurian

I have two boys (5,8) and they are into sonic, skylanders, and of course MINECRAFT. I play my grown up games on the WiiU when they are in the room and move onto the tv when they are in bed. Gone are the days when I spent hours and hours beating up the bad guys in Morrowind ;(

kmbweber2014

I monitor and play all the games my son (9) wants to play prior to him playing them, he also has a daily time limit. I don't allow him to play games where you shoot other humans mainly because games are so realistic looking and I would like to preserve my child's innocence on that matter. I don't want him to see what it's like to kill another human. I also don't let him play anything with blood or too graphic. My son loves Minecraft, Portal, Destiny, Halo, the one with the sock monkey thing (I can't remember the name now), and all of the classics like Mario. I don't let him play online unless he is playing strikes or levels (no PvP) on Destiny and it has to be with one of our real life friends and only one of our real life friends. I find I am way more strict about it than any of my friends with kids, and I am totally ok with that. I have one friend you doesn't worry about any of the media her child watches or plays and he is 9 years old and still can't sleep in his room alone at night, he also only wants to talk about shooting people in the face and blowing peoples limbs off. It's a bit scary. As far as what I play around my son; if he isn't allowed to play it, he isn't allowed to watch it or hear it. Gosh I sound like a mean strict mom ha ha.

homerjspartan

My 12yo son just finished South Park: The Stick of Truth...... I am a bad bad parent

Gilbrod

homerjspartan wrote: »

My 12yo son just finished South Park: The Stick of Truth...... I am a bad bad parent

That was a fun game. I told my kid he can play it once he turns 13. But if he starts acting like Cartman, his *kitten* toast.

VioletWhiteLotus

homerjspartan wrote: »

My 12yo son just finished South Park: The Stick of Truth...... I am a bad bad parent

Or an awesome parent! It was a pretty great game.

ptsmiles

I have two boys 7,10 and we don't allow them to play horror/violent/games that involve shooting people, generally ones that are rated M. They are more into Skylanders, Minecraft, Mario, Rayman, Portal2 and rarely WoW(they have their own low level characters and we are generally there with them).

homerjspartan

But seriously, I can't describe the amount of pride I felt the first time my 7yo daughter stabbed a guy in Black Ops 2 and said "Hello, knife to meet you...."

FitForL1fe

homerjspartan wrote: »

My 12yo son just finished South Park: The Stick of Truth...... I am a bad bad parent

haha if he liked it and hasn't played Paper Mario or even Super Mario RPG you should hook him up with one of those too

Gilbrod

draznyth wrote: »

homerjspartan wrote: »

My 12yo son just finished South Park: The Stick of Truth...... I am a bad bad parent

haha if he liked it and hasn't played Paper Mario or even Super Mario RPG you should hook him up with one of those too

+100

AlixStark

draznyth wrote: »

haha if he liked it and hasn't played Paper Mario or even Super Mario RPG you should hook him up with one of those too

Ahh memories! Super Mario RPG was the first turn-based RPG I ever played. I must have beat it 10+ times as a kid. Such a good game.

My daughter is only 5 months old so my issue right now is finding time to play more than what I'm playing, but when she's older I'll absolutely pay attention to the ESRB rating. It's the parent's job to make sure their kids are playing/watching age-appropriate media. It annoys me so much when I see people buying M rated games for 7-8 year olds, because you know those are the same people who complain about violence/sex in video games.

cyronius

AlixStark wrote: »

It annoys me so much when I see people buying M rated games for 7-8 year olds, because you know those are the same people who complain about violence/sex in video games.

I let my 7 year old (though he's older now) play M rated games (and I don't complain about sex and violence in games). However, I do that as a gamer that is able to make decisions on what is appropriate for him and what isn't.

Ratings guides are good if you're not familiar with the title, as they let the parent make informed decisions when they otherwise would not be able to, but they don't trump the decision making ability of an informed parent.

worstcaster

Mine is playing minecraft as I type this. It is good for construction type play without having to step on Legos in the dark. I like to play RPG games with him to. We are working our way through to remastered ffx right now. If you haven't played it yet Ni No Kuni Wrath of the White Witch is great.

That being said I don't worry too much about the ESRB. I look at it as a chance have a discussion about why things are right or wrong with my son and put the events of the game into context.

Mr_Knight

RealWill wrote: »

SDo you folks pay attention to the ESRB rating?

Nope.

Do you monitor what types of games you play around your kids and what you let them play?

Monitor, as in pay attention? Yes. If there's an adverse reaction to something, a conversation happens.

If not and you don't mind please say why.

Self regulation is like any other skill - the more you practice it, the better you get.

starrista

My son is only 4 and thus far his "games" of interest are only iPad ones about trucks/puzzles/letters.

He has watched me play WoW for a few minutes and I think he thought I was watching TV! Gone are the days of playing before 7 PM!

kbleiweis

The time I took my daughter to the game store to pick out HER first set of dice... ***tears***

Seriously, we played all sorts of games with the kids - D&D, Skyrim, MarioCart, Pokemon, etc, etc. Online, handheld, console, PC, tabletop, dice, card ANYTHING.

Now they are aged 17 and 19 and they are creative, adaptive, social and awesome! I think raising kids in the gaming community teaches them important skills like taking turns, reading the fine print (rules/scoring), trying new things and seeing what happens, creativity and story telling, appreciation for other cultures and languages and a strong sense of fairness as the most important quality in social interaction.

When they were little we didn't do things like Mortal Kombat, but they would watch my hubby play Morrowind as if it were a movie. Yes, ESRB ratings matter, but good parenting is the most important. My younger daughter started playing GTA5 at age 16, and she avoids the jerks and "icky" story line and just drives around. In 2015 all this "objectionable" content (sex, violence, language, drugs) is pervasive online anyway (have you been to Reddit or Tumblr?) so guiding them about making good choices through games can help them navigate the other craziness IRL.

Plus, some games (like Fallout and Skyrim) reward/punish the character based on moral choices. If only the real world had a little "Karma" meter over everyone's head!

KiltFuPanda

My oldest is 5, and I will let him watch me play RPGs like FF or Chrono Trigger, and some cartoon violence like DBZ Battle of Z. I reserve the more "stress-relieving" games like Mortal Kombat and Splatterhouse for when they're asleep. As for what I'll let him play, it's usually the Lego games (he loves the puzzle-solving bits), or other simple games (he LOVES Journey and Flow).

chaniluv

My daughter is six and I am absolutely aware of what games I play in front of her. I didn't give much thought to it until after my foot surgery. My brother watched her for the first couple days because I was in the hospital doped up. I came back and she excitedly ran up to me saying, "Mommy! I'm helping Uncle Nick kill bad guys!" It doesn't seem all that bad, but suddenly hearing the word "kill" out of my four-year-old's mouth kinda startled me into giving more thought to what games I play around her.

I don't play all that many particularly violent/profane games anyway, so I didn't have to cut off much. I don't play Diablo 3 in front of her because of the "scary monsters" and gore. League of Legends, Minecraft, and Hearthstone are all pretty safe games.

AtomicCupcake1

I must be a bad parent. I let my 10 year old play most games except ones with sex or drugs in them. He knows what's appropriate and what's not, and he knows how to behave off games. Or should I say, he knows what's expected of him. He's ADHD and autistic, so he doesn't exactly behave well. And no, I don't blame it on video games. His video gaming has nothing to do with how he acts. Gaming is his life, and he happens to be a genius at them (guess the autism gives him that ability). He has no friends, so gaming makes him happy, and I give that to him, within reason. My 8 year old daughter likes to play, but she plays things like Minecraft and other mild games.

Lothlorien_Woods

2 girls 2 and 3 and 13 year old boy. We mainly play tabletop games but my hubby plays the adult games in his man cave and not in front of the kids. We have oir family games mainly Lego Demensions but we may get Disney Infinity when the girls are older

crawforgarten

I have a son (4) and a daughter (2), and I've done my best to only play games in front of them that are age appropriate. So a lot of Golf, Football, and Lego based games. I let him play the Lego games, he loves making the characters "fall down" to their death. It's quite humorous to him.

I've debated getting him Minecraft, because I think it'd be good for him developmentally. But I'm not sure if he'd get it...

It stinks, my queue of adult games is getting very long. I haven't finished Alien Isolation and I got it when it came out 2 years ago. Despite that, I keep buying games when its a good deal and not playing them.