Appropriate

    A basic principle of parenting, that I’m sure everyone understands, is protecting your kids from dangerous or harmful media. We don’t let our kids watch scary movies until we think they’re old enough. We don’t give them unsupervised access to the internet until we trust them, at least a little. And (in theory) we don’t buy them violent video games until they reach the appropriate age.

   Now what is the appropriate age? For movies, we have the MPAA to tell us how old a person must be before they are allowed to purchase it. For the internet, we have to be more hands on, providing direct guidance on what is and isn’t safe internet browsing. And for video games we have the ESRB. Many parents I talked to while working in a game store, had never heard of the ESRB.

   I highly recommend that parents of gamers check out ESRB.org when considering what games they might want to buy for their kids. The Entertainment Software Rating Board has ratings for almost every video game and gives detailed explanations on why the game received its rating. I also recommend looking the game up on YouTube. There are hundreds of gamers who play and stream games every day, with only a basic search, you’ll find videos of the game to determine if you think it’s right for your kids.

   As a Parent Gamer, I recently realized that my own gaming habits had to change. As an adult, I can play any game, but as a parent I need to be mindful of what my child might see or hear. If I play Grand Theft Auto, for example, the NPC’s and enemies are quick to shout obscenities. If I play Call of Duty, my child’s poor ears will fill with the sound of gunfire and screaming.

   So I’ve been playing quite a bit more Minecraft. Offline, peaceful, so I can pause if the baby monitor goes off or my wife needs a hand. I’ve also attempted to include my daughter in my gaming. 

   She’s terrible.