Showing posts with label parental controls. Show all posts
Showing posts with label parental controls. Show all posts

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Massively Multiplayer Online Game for Kids

Our son loves Legos.  He loves building the sets, and then coming up with his own creations and playing with them.  Lego has really been marketing their Lego Universe massively multiplayer online game, and have been including fliers with purchases from the Lego Store.

Of course, our son wanted to sign up.  We don't feel comfortable with any of our kids playing online.  We want to make sure that we know who they are communicating with, and with a MMOG, there is a level of anonymity that the game provides, and I am sure that people take advantage of it.   (They do state that they will be moderating the online play experience to make sure that kids stay safe.)

We talked with him about our concerns, and he understands why we won't let him play this game.  Maybe when he is older we will let him play online.

Monday, March 29, 2010

Get Game Smart

Microsoft, the Entertainment Software Association and others have partnered to create Get Game Smart. This website help education parents and children about the tools that are available to allow kids to be safe while playing video games.

I really like their focus on education about Parental Control settings, ESRB ratings, and finding family friendly games. In addition, this site has tips on how parents can talk to kids about cyber-bullying, and helping kids and parents creating balance with kids screen time.

I hope sites like this one will help prevent the FUD with video games, like stories like I mentioned before.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Kids and video games

This is a pretty bad story about how dangerous video game networks are for kids.  According to the story, video game networks are full of predators.

http://kdvr.vid.trb.com/player/PaperVideoTest.swf

All video game consoles have parental control systems that can protect kids.  For example, for the few times that our son plays on the Xbox, only people on his friends list can see if he is online and chat with him.  If anyone sends him a friends request, I have to approve it before it will be authorized.

Parents need to know about how to protect their kids when they go online.  Here are some helpful links for parental control on the various video game systems

Xbox

PS3

Wii