A Parent’s Guide to Video Games For Kids of All Ages! @theESA @ESRBRatings #videogames #parentalcontrols

A Parent’s Guide to Video Games For Kids of All Ages!

The happy family on our son’s 13^th birthday. A big birthday required a big present, and he got his first Xbox!

Little did we know the journey having this type of video gaming system would take all of us on, learning time management, keeping boundaries, fighting peer pressure, and more. We also learned that the first conversation parents should have with their child when they get gaming systems is to discuss video game safety. This is an educational process for both generations!

Eight years ago, we were not savvy about video games yet. We have since learned a lot so I am here to share suggestions and offer support for parents, so video game systems are used safely in your households. My main focus in those early days was to ensure our son knew about ESRB’s age and content ratings. In our house, that meant E (for Everyone), E10+ (for Everyone 10+), or T (for Teen) games were great but M (for Mature 17+) games were not allowed. An important tip for parents is to realize that not all households have the same rules. Some parents are more relaxed with letting their kids watch R rated movies or TV-MA TV shows, so I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that our “no M games” rule is not the rule in all households. This can be tough when your child can play M games at friends’ houses. Communication is of utmost importance when having conversations about this as we cannot be a helicopter parent in other folk’s houses, as hard as we might try!

There’s a lot of great information for parents at ParentalTools.org.

Some additional topics to be aware of:
– Technology is always changing and it can be hard to keep up with the times. One of the best ways to stay current is to watch your kids play – and even play with them!
– While not all games are multiplayer, more and more games are. This means your kids have the ability to text chat or voice chat with other people who are playing the same game, at the same time. You can tell which games have online functionality by checking to see if ESRB has assigned the “Users Interact” Interactive Element. If you aren’t ready for your kids to interact with people online, choose single player games OR use parental controls on your console to restrict who they can play with. If your older teens are playing online, be sure to teach them about being responsible gamers.
-The video game industry wants to create positive experiences for all their players, so there are a lot of tools available for players – and parents! – to help keep players safe. Be sure to teach your kids about the reporting, muting and blocking functions within games, in case they see or hear something inappropriate. But also, learn about parental controls and use them to enforce your household rules. Parental controls let you limit games based on ESRB age ratings, set time limits, limit or block spending and in-game purchases, and even limit or block communicating with others. Video game companies provide all these tools for parents and players – be sure to use them!

Our son is musically inclined and recently I heard him listening to music that his grandparents had listened to. When I asked how he heard those songs, he told me that this music was in his video games. This positive aspect coming from some of the more mature video games was a great surprise! And this was not in an educational video game, something which is also the best game to start our young kids with! As you can see, our son is an avid player, remember to remind them to take a break for homework and meals, and to be polite when communicating on their comms while playing!

June was Internet Safety Month, and I just learned a lot! Here are five key items to help you:
-You Set the Rules. You can manage your child’s account using parental controls. Your house, your rules!
-You Control the Purse. Did you know you can block spending and get notifications when your kids spend money on video games? The perfect time to teach the value of money!
-Set Time Limits on Game Play. Dear son, no, an all-nighter on your Xbox is not OK! Screen time management for kids is key. Parental Controls on Xbox lets me set limits on how long they can play, and what hours they can play.
-Restrict communication through the gaming system. You have the ability to control who interacts with your kids online, and even approve new friend requests.
– Understand ESRB’s three-part rating system. These are very useful; I trust them implicitly. ESRB ratings include:

• Rating Categories – Suggest age appropriateness
• Content Descriptors – Indicate content that may have triggered a particular rating, such as language or violence
• Interactive Elements – Provide information about interactive or online features that may be important to parents, such as the ability to make in-game purchases or for users to interact with each other

Some games also include Rating Summaries, which are assigned to physical games and provide more detailed information about the content of a game and the context in which it appears.

The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) has a Family Gaming Guide to help you manage your kids’ gameplay and to help us feel we are properly guiding them – it’s even broken down by age groups. ESRB also has an app, which everyone should download and includes access to rating search, step-by-step parental control guides, the Family Gaming Guide, and ESRB’s ongoing series of blogs that provide helpful tips about managing video games. !

Lastly, have conversations with your kids about the tools available to them during gameplay:
-They have the ability to control what personal information others can see.
-They can restrict who can communicate with them through the game, and they have the ability to customize that communication.
-They can mute or block players as needed.
-They can report inappropriate behavior which includes bullying!

Showing our kids they have control can be empowering and help them to make good choices. We parents accomplish more when we partner with our kids and involve them in the decision-making process rather than trying to control them.

This added technological dimension to parenting is here to stay and we are all learning how best to navigate safely through the video gaming experience. It is a job unto itself and requires diligence on the part of the parent and the child. The above information is here to make all of that more accessible for you!

P.s. Sometimes offering a video game purchase as a reward for great schoolwork can be an awesome parental tool!

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Disclosure: This is a compensated post on behalf of the Entertainment Software Association. All opinions are 100% honest and our own.