Watching other people play horror games
Talk to them about who they are playing with and what information they are sharing.Play games together with your child and keep the technology in shared family spaces rather than bedrooms.Get involved by finding out what type of games your child enjoys and making sure they’re appropriate for their age.In addition, there are some excellent steps you can take as a parent to guide your child to safe and healthy online gaming. Learn more about Social networking in gamingĮach of the sections above offers suggestions of specific aspects of online gaming for parents to be aware of. Understanding how they interact with others on these games and setting the right boundaries on the games they play can help them make safer choices while gaming.
WATCHING OTHER PEOPLE PLAY HORROR GAMES OFFLINE
In addition, there are a number of popular social gaming platforms like Steam and Twitch offering gamers a way to share game hints with friends, upload and stream their gameplay (often called Let’s play videos).Īlthough this can help children nurture their offline friendship, it can also open them to risks of being contacted by strangers and in-game bullying. For keen gamers, multiplayer games offer deeper social interactions to encourage players to get real-time feedback, build communities and add to the immersive nature of the game.
Often offered at no cost these games, like Candy Crush, are for casual gamers rather than those seeking an immersive real-time player versus player engagement. Facebook has led the way in creating social ‘Instant’ games that can be played on its platform to maximise on connections with friends and encourage players to compete against each other. Increasingly games have become more social to add stickiness and give players a reason to stay engaged on gaming platforms. There are simple settings and strategies to keep this safe on all consoles and mobile devices. Parents should be aware of this aspect of games as it means that children can be in contact with strangers. Also, children can want to spend more money on games to unlock more items to trade. It’s important for parents to understand how this works as children can be incentivised to make connections with adults with the allure on rare items. Although this kind of trading isn’t usually actively encouraged in the game there are usually third-party apps that enable players to connect and trade. They can then trade their hard-won items with each other. Players earn special paint colours and decorations for their vehicles by paying for passes and performing well in the game. Rocket League, for example, is a game that is played online against other players that also has a substantial trading element to the experience. Online games that don’t offer direct gameplay interactions with strangers often enable players to interact with each other to exchange items and power-ups.