Does anyone know the game "Among Us"? 11yr old loves it, 15yr old disapproves!!

[lborgia]

I tried searching but it's a difficult phrase!

If you know the game, you have probably banned your child from playing, or think it's fine.

DS is self-limiting by leaving a group if someone even has a dodgy name, but I'm wondering if there is room for something to be posted that he can't unsee?!

Ds (8) plays it and loves it. I hadn't thought about dodgy names though..... 😳

Tbh in our family the rule is the young kids don't get to play any games that haven't been vetted by an adult first. If your 15yr old thinks it's inappropriate then i would be logging on to play myself, or getting a trusted friend to do so. Tbh I'd have done this before letting my kid on it!

My DS 11 plays it. It’s a really good strategy game. Think wink murder in space. However, ransoms do play it. We’ve had a discussion about what to do if anything inappropriate is said and about personal information.

*randoms!!

I play it and am a little addicted. You can have swearing and bad words blocked in the chats so you cant see them.

How do you block the swearing?

I’m a little worried about what my be written in the ‘emergency meeting’ chat.

Once I noticed a player called CUMshot but ds didn’t notice as it meant nothing to him.

We play it as a family. 8 yr old only plays in private games with us or his siblings/cousins.

13 yr old plays with others but knows to immediately stop if she sees anything that makes her uncomfortable. She only chats within the game where swear words are * out.

I think quite a lot of the negative press towards it has come from children opening up other forms of chat outside of the game to talk about it whilst playing. I.e WhatsApp or other chat spaces

Ds10 once said to me people were “using it like a dating app”, but that was just one occasion.

I’m interested what the 15 yr old thinks about it

My 9 year old plays it sometimes. We have the swear filter on and he has to use our main PC and I can see the screen at all times. Sometimes we play together which is fun!
As a pp said, it's basically wink murder in space.

My children's primary put a message out about this game warning that several parents had been in touch to say their child had been sent 'incredibly inappropriate messages' by other game players.

My 10 year old is only allowed to play with friends on a private server - much to her annoyance. My teens are allowed on public ones and gave me the heads up about inappropriate and unpleasant messages that sometimes go on there. They're old enough to deal with it, the 10 year old isn't. I'd listen to your 15 year old and maybe play it a bit yourself.

Like anything, the issue is general online safety and not the game itself. So you need sensible rules and to teach your children how to be safe online.

My children play it together and the middle child and youngest can't read (both are developmentally delayed) I don't mind!

The 13 year old is more sensible than I've ever been so I trust him to look out for the 6 & 10 year olds.

Tbh. Our children (Dcs and SC) create a game where they play among themselves.

I have the app on my phone and have joined in too - its basically Cluedo. The chat option is the only way to be discouraged by it, they speculate who the sabotage(r)(e) (I don't know!). You can turn off the chat option though.

Personally I think its harmless, theres no private chat or anything like that. It's a group.
Its Cluedo on a video game - the kids think its hilarious because I am old, and have no idea!

Thanks for all the feedback.

I did my usual job, watched a video of it, watched ds playing it, looked it up on common sense media, and asked ds if he'd seen anything inappropriate. He said that a couple of times he saw dodgy names, but then he just leaves the game.

Ds15 is very very cautious. I'm afraid I had a hard time letting him start on minecraft all those years ago, and I know that some of his concern is actually peevishness at my lax parenting of the second.

I am still on the fence, but will start by suggesting he explain to me the details of his latest minecraft and other various mods etc.etc, at the end of which he will either have forgotten about it, or it will be Christmas...

Thanks again.