Not introducing my 6 year old to gaming ?

Mine craft is a nice game - disable the monsters (they're not scary but will attack your character at night fall) and put it on 'creative' (which means you can fly and have unlimited stuff without having to find, make or mine it all first) and it's basically a building block game with nice animals roaming about.

I think it's good for using maths without realising it and is a non destructive 'blowing things up' or 'killing' game.

I've got 4 kids (all DDS) and they've always been allowed a little go on the nice games on playstation from about 6. When you've got more than one kid it's hard to keep the youngest one off it years and years.

You just have to put time boundaries in place, keep the games age appropriate and educational and stick to them. I would say reading the blurb in the games helps with reluctant readers even. Teachers were always impressed with my DCs early reading skills. They played happily with toys and read books too.

Former teacher, Ed Psych here.

Don't do it. Far better for their development to have as little screen time and as much real life play and interaction as possible. Gaming can be a very slippery slope.

DH is a gamer (and I had a Sims and Civ addiction in the late 90s) so DSs have played games with us (mainly DH) as a family downstairs from about six. Half an hour a day (if there’s nothing else going on…forget it when either boy has a cricket match!). I’m glad now that my socially awkward (ASD diagnosed) non-football playing DS1 is off to secondary as he’s going to be able to fit in with a wider range of people. And they both can accept that their time is very limited.

Other families may do differently but I’m a often reminded of an old friend who grew up in a house without a TV and spent much of late primary unable to join in the playground chatter…

Are you sure it’s a DS? Just that they haven’t been on sale for years. Unless Uncle gave him his old one from ~10 years ago then it’s probably the Switch or Switch Lite and that can definitely play Minecraft! We have it for the Switch.

Minecraft is alright so long as you sort the setting first e.g. disabling the chat. It’s creative and age appropriate. Just depends whether you want to allow the device to play it on such as the ipad or a switch. Roblox is awful and rated 13+ because of some of the content and the chat function. Absolutely no way a 7YO should be allowed anywhere near it and I seriously doubt all the boys are on it, maybe more watching youtube videos or exposure via older siblings though. If it were me I’d compromise on the minecraft with strict time limits such as 30 minutes at the weekend. Because I don’t think it’s a bad game at all and that way he can join in the chat at school.

Keep them away from gaming for as long as you can. The problem is it makes other activities like playing with toys, puzzles, books, board games seem boring in comparison and they end up falling by the wayside

I let mine play minecraft from 7, as that is the recomnended minimum age. i dont allow Roblox or any form of online chat.

My nearly 6yo plays a bit of Minecraft. He gets 20 minutes a week and doesn’t make a fuss at all about turning it off. Honestly I do not love it because I’ve always been quite strict about screens and would never have allowed it for my oldest, but as the youngest of 3 DH and I are a bit more lax with him.

Absolutely not to Roblox.

Edited to add - I would only introduce it if he’s feeling left out and he can’t socialise with the other kids because he doesn’t play it. Otherwise why bother?

I should add, we did have a PS4 (and still do) that is in the lounge and mostly his dad's, so he played that occasionally when he was younger but the communal nature of it meant he couldn't be on it all the time, so something like that might be an interim measure?

I'd genuinely leave this as long as possible, I have an 8 year old and it causes arguments all the time.

I would resist as much as possible.

Roblox is a platform where anyone can create and upload games, some of which are purposefully inappropriate (stroke the cucumber).

We allow Minecraft but disable the chat function:

I generally agree it's too soon. Luckily DS didn't experience much peer pressure about this but we decided to let him get a Switch in Y6 because frankly, as a non-sporty boy we recognised gaming would be an important social glue for him in secondary school, and so it has been.

DS had some interest before but he coped with just watching YouTube videos about gaming sometimes, and playing at friends' houses.

He does play a bit too much of allowed but at least he never has screaming tantrums when told to stop, which is not that uncommon with young boys and I suspect is more common when they started gaming too young.

No, I really wouldn’t.