Am I in serious trouble?

[JacqueHammer]

Ds is 12. He's just remembered to tell me that on Friday a teacher heard him talking about one of his computer games. As it was rated 18 (call of duty) the teacher said he was going to report him.
All his friends play the same games.

Am I going to get reported to Soc Services and what will happen? I'm a lone parent and terrified now.

Why are you letting him play then? Its unlikely to meet threshold for intervention anyway but if your panicking about it that means you must know it's wrong 🤷‍♀️

Report to who?
Social services would not be interested. I don't let my DS play this game but loads of his friends do.

It's not illegal for those below the Pegi rating of computer games to play them. Whilst I agree with pp that 12 is probably too young to be playing 18 games myself , "reporting" you will have no effect. It's up to you but I would take another look at the content of it.

i seriously doubt social services would waste their time investigating what computer games children are playing.

It's not ideal- but I would much rather a 12 year old was playing CoD than GTA.

The teacher might fill in a cause for concern form, which might result in someone in charge of safeguarding having a word with your son. That would be all.

Social services don't have the capacity to deal with this kind of thing, so I wouldn't worry on that score. But I'm sorry - I do think the teacher's comment should be a wake-up call that letting a 12 year old play Call of Duty is not great parenting.

It's not illegal to play games when you are younger than the PEGI ratings. They are advisory only. Get your son to ask the teacher who is going to report him to - other than you as a parent. There is no governing body. It is solely up to you to judge what he is mature enough to play.

Children of that age are not mature enough for the content. It could cause issues for your child. He could become desensitised to violence.... not know how to cope. I really wouldn't let him if I was you.

god karen you are so stupid -_-

Don't understand the Karen comment?

Thanks for the speedy replies.
Had visions of being called an unfit parent etc etc, son taken away.. Mind was running away with me.
Ds wore me down tbh regarding the games, all his pals have them. Wish I would have stuck to my initial view of 'no way.'
I'm banning him off them indefinitely. He has other games like Minecraft he can play.

Thanks again mners for wise advice.

@JacqueHammer don't know if you're new to Mumsnet or a namechanger - but you've chosen a posting name that's very similar to another, longstanding poster. Might be a good idea to change it, as it's very confusing!

Teacher was wrong to tell him she was going to ‘report’ him. If they felt it was a safeguarding concern then they should have gone through their reporting criteria without mentioning it to him
It’s far from ideal and tbh I would have filled in a Cause For Concern sheet if a child disclosed that to me but no one is going to take your DS away.

Good Christ, my child played GTA at nine (in hindsight could have waited a couple of years) and isn't some sadistic monster...

Talk about an overreaction! About 3/4 of my son's classmates (12/13 years old) play it and they're all really decent boys.