To let my dd (10) cry and feel left out and sad rather than buy her a 16 rated game?

[muttrat]

Her friends are playing star wars battlefront. It's a 16 and I've said no. She's crying and miserable because she can't play and is left out

OK skyrim is an 18. It's very violent.

Surprised they say parents say 12+ on commonsense media

I think YABU but I suspect I'll be in the minority here.

Age ratings are often way off the mark.

It's not that bad! I too do not like my DS (11) playing what I think are violent games but this one is relatively ok.
It's fighting with light sabers etc, and that's why I think it is 16, but I've not seen anything gory in it. See if you can watch a demo and judge for yourself.

We are v strict about games/ages and ds wanted this so we bought it 2nd hand to try it. It's absolutely fine (he's only 9)- honestly, I'm really strict about things like this and I've let him play so I think you'd be fine.

My 9 year old SS plays it and it's fine ... we are pretty strict too !

YANBU.

I just watched the YouTube demo and I think it's horrible.

I wouldn't let a 12-year-old play that, much less a 8-year-old.

Sorry, 9-year-old. Whatever!

DD was into online video games during primary school, until i noticed the correlation between those who played in her class and which table they sat on.
The class used to split into tables for some lessons based on ability.
The correlation was not positive. With the gamers being in the bottom half of the class.
Try to wean her off completely if you can.

Oh bollocks, massive generalisation. Loads of high ability kids are into Minecraft, for one thing.

gracie

There's a massive difference between computer lego (mincraft) and online gaming. It's not bollocks. My primary aged dd doesn't like computer games much and isn't fused we we don't have a console but if she did, I'd not let her online game.

Minecraft is an online game, though can be played offline. It is massively ignorant generalising bollocks to say all the kids who play any online games whatsoever are on the bottom tables in primary school.

My response would be the same as my mums. That's life. Now I need a brew.
My son wouldn't ask. Ffs he found the grinch scary and don't even go there with the goonies.

My daughter would try her luck. I'd say no shed moan and then get distracted by what was for tea. Just say no everytime she moans. She will get the gist eventually.

I personally would resist getting sucked into investigating whether the ratings are correct for all these things yourself. It's a tiresome chore which will mean you'll literally never finish watching losers play YouTube games to appease your children.

If you say no because of the age rating, stick to it. Otherwise you don't really have a line and it'll be an actual nightmare.

Researchers tracked academic performance at school, and found evidence of an effect. Not only did the kids who received game systems spend less time doing homework, they also performed worse on standardized tests of reading and writing four month's later. Moreover, their teachers were more likely to report academic problems.

This is exactly what happened to my DD.
Her levels at school dropped. And the teacher raised new concerns about her concentration during class, eg looking out the window instead of at the white board.

I had bought her LittleBigPlanet which was cute relatively harmless fun, but her older cousin introduced her to COD.
Games like Minecraft have some creative and educational value.
But shooter games like cod and battle front are a big distraction from school work and also highly addictive, especially to children.

If it's any consolation my 13 year olds aren't allowed Halo.

I have seen the huge negative impact computer games have at work so I'm probably uber over sensitive. They get over it though. I'm equally mean re screen time. Apparently my kids have the strictest mum in the world because they only get an hour of screen time after school( this is after having a mobile phone in their pocket at school all day).

To be fair I think some of the negative fall out from computer games is the amount of time kids are on them. Yes over age violent games are to be avoided but hours on anything (even Minecraft) can have a big detrimental impact.

If she doesn't even like Star Wars, then what's the point of her having the game? Don't go down the route of buying her things because she thinks it'll make her popular.

I'd bet her friends play it for a few months and get bored anyway.

The only reason we let ds play was that he's a massive Star Wars fan and that he only plays it with us (it's our Xbox and played on the TV in the living room- well, the only TV in the house, so we could easily monitor if anything was at all inappropriate). It's only played very rarely so isn't a big 'distraction'.

DS is almost 11 and we got him Star Wars Battlefront for xmas with Xbox one. It is worlds apart from the likes of skyrim and cod which he is not allowed to play! DH has a PS4 and had Battlefront already so we knew the content and in my opinion is fine.

We do restrict screen time though. He's not allowed to play during the week with the exception of Wednesday evenings as this is the only night there is no homework or after school activity. He is fine with that and also understands it's a privilege that can be withdrawn if he doesn't put the effort into his homework!

My 10 year old plays it but NOT with random strangers. He's watched all the Star Wars movies and enjoys 12A Marvel superhero films so it's not too violent for him.

The high rating is because you can fight human to human. Making the game creature to creature violence (say Plants vs Zombies) or human vs creature (like Mario) lowers the rating.

I think she has FOMO (fear of missing out) rather than a desire to play. I bet they are on a new game soon.

As a general rule, never fall for the "all the other people in my class have..." BS!

I liked that trailer, but then I love Star Wars and I'm nearly half a century older than your DD! I wouldn't play it because first person shooter style games aren't my thing, and IMO they aren't especially suitable for primary aged children. If she doesn't like or was frightened by the film it makes no sense at all to let her get inside the film and be one of the characters she was bored by, or frightened for.

When DS3 started his IT uni course, the lecturer asked the students who played multiplayer online games. The majority put their hands up, not surprisingly. The lecturer said if they continued to play these games he could tell them quite categorically that they would not pass the course. DS3 took this literally (as he tends to) and gave up MMORPGs for the duration. He got a First and subsequently a decent job in the industry. He said those who didn't give them up were struggling at best. The moral of this tale is not that RPGs are bad for your brain, but that they take up a lot of mental energy that you need for other things, like studying. And Life.

I do take games recommendations with a pinch of salt TBH. We have Star Wars Battlefront and my boys play it - one is 10, the other 14. Happy with the 10 year old playing it as I did my research and read the commonsense media reviews, and did what other people suggested and watched some you tube videos.

There is no way however that i'd let the 14 year old play something like Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto. It's a judgement call based both on the child, and the content of the game.

Now excuse me, I'm off to spend my leave day plating WoW (cert 13)!

I play games and I have four children. I have noticed that if they spend time on games consoles they Do seem to work less hard, or read less. Kids who read do better at school. I am not going to buy it. She can play Fifa online and minecraft.

I would be buying it to keep her 'popular' - then where does it end?

Do your research and then make a decision. Do not make a decision based on "everyone else is allowed". I have a nearly-17-yo who tells me that "everyone else" is getting a car for their 17th