I know that for many parents, allowing you child to play on their Xbox/PlayStation/WiiU/PC in their bedroom is a welcome break, but are you really aware of what might me happening?
This is something I should’ve thought about doing sooner. I’m an adult gamer, I’ve played pretty much all pc & consoles since the late 80’s as a hobby. My DH also plays and it’s one of many activities we enjoy together.
Over time gaming has changed dramatically and one thing I have become very concerned about is the amount of children who I’ve encountered who apparently have no one monitoring them.
I frequently get children invite me to interact with them verbally. Sometimes you get children who just laugh when you speak, some try to make friends, some just send constant back to back invites if you don’t accept and some try to scam (in certain games). This was was very worrying (and occasionally irritating)
I was invited to join a group of people to voice chat while doing a mission on a game. There were two what sounded like adult males and 2-3 children’s voices and a woman. The younger sounding voices weren’t in the game we were playing at the time, and kept jumping in and out of the chat, to ask questions about the game.
Our mission failed and there was an argument between the two older male voices. One was really nasty to the other and went offline. It transpired that the one who left was an adult that the other didn’t know, and he himself was only just 15. The others were his friends who were a few years younger, sometimes his 10 year old brother would join them.
After further conversation I discovered that the adult had been no only helping them with advice on the game, he’s been helping them through it, giving them valuable in game items for free and in some cases conning some into exchanging items that profited him (it’s likely parents would have spent money for these items)
This man, it turns out was living in the same area as these kids, they hadn’t met, none of them knew him in RL but he’d used the older boys network of friends to gain access.
He started bullying the older boy for talking to me and the other woman, and when that didn’t stop, he targeted malicious controlling behaviour to me and the other woman. The younger children then joined to tell the older boy that this man was telling them they couldn’t talk to the older boy or he’d stop giving them things. Alarm bells went, I told them not to speak to him any more because he sounds dangerous. I was then told by the older boy that this man had told him he’s been convicted of having sex with an underage girl, but that apparently it was a misunderstanding.
The kids keep in contact, infrequently and promise that they’ve stayed away from the older man. I told them to tell their parents, only one did, the rest were too scared of having their console taken away.
There are other reasons to be supervising children playing on console.
Children can join adults voice conversations and exposed to swearing and adult conversations. Or the children invite adults to join them.
Children swearing, I hear A LOT. Voices of children that haven’t broken or on the verge of it. Some whose parents are teachers, nurses etc. Don’t say it’s not your child, unless you’re monitoring it could be.
I’ve heard of several children spending huge sums of money without parents permission (from adults not the children). I know that at least with Microsoft for online gaming to occur you have to have an Xbox live pass, which for most games to work is required and that needs card details always on the system, which makes purchasing much easier. You can set up a password but be careful your child doesn’t watch you, they learn quickly and if you don’t know how to use the controls, it could prove tricky for some.
I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve asked to speak to a child’s parent or adult because I’ve been concerned about inappropriate/dangerous behaviour, and the amount I’ve spoken to so far is 0.
Most children are vulnerable whilst gaming, which child wouldn’t want to have an adult who’s better at the game, knows more, helps and compliments them and gives them valuable items in game or helps them to earn it be their friend, and then boast to their other friends and show them off....you can see how this happens.
Please spread the word to other parents.