Not introducing my 6 year old to gaming ?

[immigrant002]

My ds just started y2 he says all the boys are talking about minecraft or roblox and he doesn't know what it is . I did not intentionally keep him from it but he was never really interested so it didnt occur to me he would be the odd one out !
I have no idea about gaming or what it involves . AIBU to introduce it to him, so he does not feel left out ? Dh is saying no let him be a child but i do think it keeps him from connecting with other boys in his class .

No, I really wouldn’t.

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.

He is not into football either he plays cricket but most of the kids in his class are either into football or gaming ! I feel a bit sad for him but deep down i know he is too young for games ! I feel very conflicted

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

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?

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

So its Minecraft on its on ? As in not a social play ? His uncle did gift him a nintendo ds but its just sitting there we only played the stick games on it like tennis and bowling ! Can he use that for minecraft ? (I am bit clueless )

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

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.

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.

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…

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.

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.

Should add i never allow any screens in bedrooms - any gaming was done on the family TV with us watching or wandering in and out ect. Half an hour at a time max.

My ds has just turned 7, and yes all his friends are Minecraft, Roblox and Nintendo switch obsessed.
On the surface if you spoke to ds you would think we let him play them, but we don’t. He is allowed to watch a small amount of YouTube kids at the weekend, and he chooses to watch other people play those games, so he could have a conversation with you about them and knows the characters etc he’s never actually played them himself 😂
Only because we don’t want to buy him a switch yet (we think he’s too young) but we didn’t want him to feel too left out. His friends act out the games in play time etc at school, he can join in as he knows enough.
He even used his own pocket money to buy himself a Minecraft t-shirt from Tesco’s, it’s not what I would buy but he was desperate and he used his own money.

Hes asked for some Minecraft Lego/figures for Christmas, I think we will buy him them. It’s just the screens that we want to put off for as long as we can.

I think gaming (and YouTube to be fair if not rationed/moderated) can be so addictive and I want him to play with toys and not screens for as much as possible.

@lollyPaloozah - we had to ban you tube kids. (no roblox either)

DD4's behaviour took a total nose dive after a month or two of being allowed to watch it occasionally. This was at 8/9 yrs old.

2 years on it's still banned.

My seven year old doesn’t game and won’t be either! Not at home anyway. However he has like your son been asking about Minecraft so I got him some Minecraft stories from yoto and audible, and some books, he’s now an expert?! And I imagine can chat about it with friends without being a gamer.

Also have a 6 year old and we’ll be avoiding this as long as possible. The children in my child’s class who are allowed to game a lot often have very rubbish attention span for anything else, and come out with things like ‘I’ll kill you if you don’t do this’ which they’ve delightfully learned from gaming… it’s a no from me! She has an old iPad with some bluey games etc on it for holiday, and that’s plenty at this age as far as I am concerned

Another vote for Minecraft, DS built a fully working calculator.

Like anything it's up to you as a parent to manage access.

DS is ND and had difficulties with social interactions and was speech delayed, so we found it was helpful for him to play some games to be able to have a point of conversation.

He was time limited and the Xbox was in the main room.

Around that age he mainly played Lego Star Wars, he would play for a bit, then recreate it with actual Lego, and then watch the scenes in the actual film. Very repetitive but he was happy and was more likely to make an effort to discuss and describe something he was interested in, so it served a purpose.

You can also put the console on a timer, so it goes off at a set time, rather than you having to telling him to come off.

You can block all that and also the chat function etc.

I'm holding out till 8 for computer games for my son (and daughter but weirdly I don't even think if it as a potential issue for her) and then might try with it. He LOVES screens (and shows some signs of deteriorating behaviour over just youTube) so we limit access to programmed TV in the lounge. I show him the occasional game and buy him merchandise and let him play at grandparents or friends so he's up with what's cool.
A friend's 6yo had access to games on an iPad but his behaviour got bad so he's restricted to just 2 educational reading and maths games now.