My DS plays Minecraft is Roblox ok ?

[sleepingrabbits]

My DS is 5 ( year one) but been doing Minecraft about a year. He loves zombies, but I do worry about the fighting/ killing aspect a bit, him being so young. He's very into the quests in Minecraft Dungeons, but is slightly limited by his reading ability. He's getting there.

He says he wants a new game and I was wondering about Roblox? He already plays sonic the hedgehog and driving car type games, but looses interest in those. Minecraft he's played daily ( with a limit) for a year on iPad and / or X box.

Roblox is not one game. It’s a platform for loads of games.

Some of the games are perfect. Some really aren’t. So I would watch what he plays closely!

I hate roblox, I wouldn’t get him into it if he doesn’t know it already or asking to play. Getting sick of my kids constantly asking for robucks or whatever it’s called, and some of the games aren’t really appropriate

Keep him off of roblox for as long as possible!

My youngest played it at that age due to having an older brother. lots of children on his class also have it. give it till the end of the year and he will be asking about it. Some games are absolutely fine others are not

My two love it, they're 6 and 8, they much prefer it to Minecraft, there's much more you can do on there than just build.

@Gertie75 do you have to buy the money or can they play without ?

He hasn't asked about Roblox, but wants to get among us. Which seems a bit dark. Watching some kids you tube videos on this made him cry about the alien (?) dying. So I was trying to find an alternative. I'd prefer he stuck with Minecraft, as I sort of know about it now.

He also plays Minecraft Dungeons which is a bit different, you have to follow a map and solve quests. But some reading involved, as a child just learning to read he clicks past it and then doesn't always get what he's meant to do. I think it's for a bit older than 5. These kids in a rush. I spent my childhood staring out the window.

I'd say no for among us abs Roblox

Minecraft at 5 is enough I think.

You don't need to pay, there are in game purchases but you don't need them to play.

They can be used to upgrade the avatar and buy clothing etc, nothing necessary to playing the games on there.

No you don’t need them to play but it won’t stop kids asking as they can buy stuff with it and some games are harder to play if you don’t have a magic carpet or whatever 🙄

My 9 year old plays Minecraft, sonic and mario and still some of the Toca games. She is desperate for robkox but it's a no from me. Many of her friends play it but I just don't like the fact the as others have said it's a platform for all kinds of games, some of which aren't suitable. I also am not crazy about a game that has advertised how to stay safe while playing roblox. That's fine for older kids, as in secondary age children but not at primary age. I want it to be relatively easy to stay safe at this age and I just don't trust that it's that easy on robkox.

For a five year old the Lego games are a lot of fun and they come in every variety (Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Wars, Batman etc - Lego Movie too.

You're allowed to say no. There's all kinds of weird, disturbing, creepy, age inappropriate for reasons including but not limited to violence, stuff on Roblox as well as harmless stuff. At 5 he already has plenty of games by the sound of it. You need to be able to say no now, or you'll struggle when he's 7 or 9 or 11... let alone a teen. You don't want to be the parent who's 10 year old plays GTA.

@Tailendofsummer sounds lovely, will look into this, although I've tried him watching some Lego animations and the movies but no interest 😟 I'm always trying to broaden his horizons. Ironically he started on Minecraft, because of kids you tube. I stopped him watching normal YouTube as he was obsessed with the police and then the algorithm kept bringing up games footage from Beam NG- it's a car game sometimes police chases and of course zombie hunts. So I swapped one set of zombies for another. He has very specific interests unfortunately.

Roblox needs to me monitored. Some awful games on there

@UntilYourNextHairBrainedScheme

You're allowed to say no. There's all kinds of weird, disturbing, creepy, age inappropriate for reasons including but not limited to violence, stuff on Roblox as well as harmless stuff. At 5 he already has plenty of games by the sound of it. You need to be able to say no now, or you'll struggle when he's 7 or 9 or 11... let alone a teen. You don't want to be the parent who's 10 year old plays GTA.

I do say no, I said no to among us, but he's been acting out the game with a few other boys at school. I expect they aren't playing it, just watching clips of others on YouTube, but some have older siblings.

My kids have ambled through Among Us and Roblox and it hasn’t made them obsessed. That might be because I am really careful with screen time. I do tell them they are not allowed to use the chat function at all so they ignore that side of it.

@FreeBritnee that's good to know. I limit computer games to 1 hour and it's set on parental controls so it's automatic. He doesn't actually play daily, but he will watch the drivel on YouTube of others playing it when he's not on there.

sleepingrabbits yep of course older siblings make a difference - my youngest is 10 and I have 2 teens. The 14 year olds who were playing Roblox a few years ago are playing 18s now. My 14 year old occasionally protests about not being allowed anything over a 16 but accepts grudgingly.

Its not about being obsessed, with the exception of the odd intense trend like Fortnite a couple of years ago, its about parents letting their children (boys usually) play too much too soon so that age appropriate or slightly too old things are "boring" long before they're even old enough!

There's no need at all to seek out console games for a 5 year old who already has a couple of games - rushing through allowing or offering up all sorts to children who can't even read yet also brings you up against a wall when you've offered up everything vaguely appropriate and not got in the habit of just saying "its enough for now, that's all you need this year".

I agree some of the children won't have played the games they act out but "just" seen them on YouTube or seen a sibling play. YouTube is almost worse than open games platforms IMO as they can stumble across really unpleasant / inappropriate stuff by accident even with filters set.

I let DS1 (5, year 1) play roblox, the chat function is turned off and he knows not to ask for robucks.
He's not allowed to play any shooting or police games on it - he likes firefighter ones, race car ones, and ones where you build a themepark/city.

I'm also very mean and don't let him watch youtube videos of kids playing videogames because they are so shouty and annoying.

I hate Roblox, my 8 year old does play it but it needs constant supervision. I would rather he play Forntite tbh.

My 5 year old has started asking to play it but I'm trying to hold her off.

I usually enjoy a bit of gaming with my eldest but franklh Roblox is just crap and I don't get why people like it.

Roblox is a hard no from me because I've heard too many stories about kids stumbling across inappropriate content and I can't constantly supervise. I would rather have Fortnite as well.

Lego games are good for younger ones as a pp said, has he tried plants Vs zombies?

Roblox is fine as long as you limit it to only show approved content.

It's the games made by random people that ate problematic rather than the content from the designers.

If does have a chat function, though you can disable this.

Minecraft story mode, minecraft dungeons are other ideas.
My ds enjoys one called Grounded where you play as a tiny (shrunk) person living amongst giant beetles etc. No zombies though!