AIBU to ask if you let your primary school kid play the new computer game 'Among Us?'

[Sundiamond]

Our near 10yr old DS wants to play this. But from what i've read you have to play it with chat, as it's a team game, and there are stories of inappropriate teenager comments, swearing etc.

What do people do/think?

Mine play with with me. They're 4 and 7. I have the chat censored and everything rude goes over the 4 years old head since he can't read. The 7 year old knows the blanked out words are swears, but that's it.

It's a bit too challenging for them to participate fully, so we tend to work as a team on one account. It's great fun, there's no private messaging, you can tget anyiebs account details from it. Supervised it's a fab game for children and teaches some good critical thinking skills.

*can't get anyone's account details it should say.

Private group for my 12yr old. I did have a nosey and was abit my darling boy said someone was a 'dick'. Then remembered he's not 7 anymore 😁

Firstly, it's not a new game

Secondly, I play. The chat can be awful. There is a censor filter you can have on, but lots of stuff is inappropriate but doesn't get filtered. Lots of the N-word, the R-word etc. I swear like a trouper, but the chat really bothers me a lot. There is definitely scope for bullying. There's no private chat facility though, which is a bonus.

I let my 11 year old play it, but the rule is not to join chat if she's on a public game.
You can’t play without chat though @Lougle it’s a fundamental part of the game. The chat is how you figure out who is who. Without that you’re literally running around not knowing what’s going on, game after game.

I play with 10 year old DS, he normally creates a public game so he is the host, anyone swearing or being inappropriate gets chucked out. To be honest the game is so quick there's not much time to chat

Sorry in advance for the offensive language but this is the kind of thing that gets said in chat. Not always, granted, but regularly enough that I wouldn’t let a 10/11 year old play it.

Me and my 7 year old play (public). The chat function is really only used to discuss the game and it is only available for a limited amount of time. Swearing is censored so you can’t make out the words but my 7 year old knows what words are appropriate and what are not. There is no private messaging. I haven’t seen anything inappropriate.

My DS had asked if he could play (9) and now I'll be saying no after reading this!

I play it with my 11 and 13 year old. Quite often in a private game with friends but some times public. You can mute swearing but it is easy to unmute. Occasionally there are inappropriate things said, my kids have told me and just left the server but if you don't feel that your child would do that, it is probably not a good idea unless he is using it completely supervised.
Also to who ever said they rarely hear swearing, you wouldn't because the chat is typed, the only way you would hear it is if your kid was also using an app like discord.

My 11yo nephew plays but only with his friends in a private server.

The public games are hit and miss as with most public forums - swears are censored and on most games people are only focusing on the actual game play. The main annoying thing about the chat is getting voted out for being 'sus' even though you haven't done anything Generally most games are full of people just trying to figure out who the impostor is and all talk is appropriate. I've seen a few rude people but the majority are okay. I don't think you'd be unreasonable to tell your son though that he can only play in private rooms with people he knows. I found a group of people to play with and it's better as there's no annoying people randomly pressing the emergency meeting button for no reason or lying/throwing out accusations randomly that immediately get you thrown out so you can actually play the game 'properly' with friends.

Clue: Your kids will have heard all the words and probably said most of them in the school playground.

My 9yo is playing it.

The gameplay itself is good. Simple cartoony graphics, using intelligent thinking to work out the imposter or get away with it (and with his masking autistic traits, DS is bloody good at it!)

Chat is a hazard, but the games tend to be short and pacy which keeps it to the point. DS is very dyslexic so not motivated to get engaged in a lot of chatting. I'm trying to raise him with the openess to come to me if he is concerned, worried or uncomfortable about anything even if he did something stupid.

I veto a lot (fortnite is still a resounding no), but there has to be some slack and trust too, and on balance the benefits of this game make it worth a go. The DCs also know that any aggro from a game, and I will block it.

My dd9 watches YouTube videos about it but I said she couldn’t have it because of the chat function.
I turned the chat off on roblox too .

@SockDrawer

Sorry in advance for the offensive language but this is the kind of thing that gets said in chat. Not always, granted, but regularly enough that I wouldn’t let a 10/11 year old play it.

Jeez... racist and foul mouthed . Glad I said no now

My 11yo plays in public - we’ve talked about potential issues with Chat, but never seen so much as a single swear word.

She has to play in the same room as me - though private she doesn’t.

Swearing doesn’t bother me. Offensive / threatening words do - as would “are you a girl?” type comments mentioned on this thread, but we haven’t. Honestly though - I’d rather she sees those with me safely alongside her so that we can say, “see, parents aren’t OTT about this - this is what happens, and this is why you need to be careful.”

@CorianderBlues - that's a silly thing to say

My 9 year old plays it.
You can block the swearing in the settings.

i play it, my kids do too.. but i actually play it and my games are streamed on Twitch.

Yes, like all games out there that use a chat, there are going to be predators and idiots.. the game does have an excellent bad language filter though.

As long as your kids have the sense to back out of a public game if anyone is being weird/creepy its fine.

otherwise, make sure they're playing private games with a group of friends, rather than joining the public ones.

I do have to say though, i've played public, and when our group is short, we do allow others to join, and so far we've not had any weird/creepy people join!

No, my 10 year old asked during the week. He's not allowed play games with chat functions unless it's only with his friends. You have to have chat enabled to play this properly. So no.

I play it with children in my family but only in private groups where we know everyone

Yes my 9 and 11 year olds do, mainly private games. We always talk about the bad language, what it means, what it means in context, why it’s offensive etc.

That sounds like such a wanky thing to say but it’s true!

If they play in a private group (so no public chat), is the content suitable for a 9 year old? I know it’s about killing people, but is it actually gory? If it’s just a version of wink murder that they play in the playground, it could be OK, but I’m nervous to let my 9yo play...

No one should let any child go in to a public lobby in any game. I game online, I now play an MMO with trusted friends mainly. The stuff said is not just swearing. I’m sure many would not like to be told to suck a dick but how about kids being threatened that the other player will fuck/ rape their Mum? the whole sugar daddy stuff does exist and children and vulnerable adults can be groomed online in games. They are offered points, v bucks stuff like that. As a woman I have been offered free games many times, I always say no.

People are always up in arms about the games themselves, the violence. That is not the main issue at all. Would you leave your child in a room with potentially dozens of strangers of all ages. Because that is what a chat room is.

Open game chat is potentially very dangerous.

DS (11) is only ever allowed to play online games with private chats (to his friends). There’s no way I (or his father) are letting him talk to strangers online. I’m happy for him to chat to his friends though (real friends, who he knows in actual life).

I agree with @Valkadin that other gamers in open chat are by far the biggest hazard in online gaming.