Playing Ben 10 game on computer at school- year R!!!

[AbbyR1973]

Evening All,

DS1 was telling me about his day at school today. He happened to mention that he had been playing a Ben 10 game on the computer at school before and after assembly this morning. He said the game involved pressing the space bar repeatedly to try to whack the "baddies" until they die, he said its ok though because they then come back to life again.
He said he had seen another boy playing the game and had decided to play it himself. I asked if the teachers had seen him playing it and he said no they weren't there at the time. We discussed that its probably not an appropriate choice of game particularly for school time and why I wouldn't like him to be playing a game like that. DS1 is a bright boy and quite capable of doing google searches with fairly good spellings for the search terms.
I'm a wee bit peeved about this. I don't let DS's watch Ben 10 at home and probably wouldn't let him play a game like this at home. I am quite careful about how much TV they watch and we generally stick to CBeebies, Nick Junior or Milkshake if we are watching TV. I'm sure the teachers didn't know what they were playing so not really their fault but I feel they should know what is going on. I was going to check the games out for myself over the weekend and then mention it to the teacher on Monday morning. Am I being pfb? What do you think??

PS he also said "its a really good website Mummy because we watched Mr. Bean too and its really funny!"
Whilst I have nothing personal against Mr. Bean and they are only Year R I just don't think this is a good use of school time...

What is it about ben 10 you object to?

Violent fast edited cartoon. Surely any game that involved "whacking" someone until they are dead is bad- we are talking about 5 year olds. I am having a look at the games now. Its taking a while to load up but so far I have been offered buttons labelled "punch" and "shoot"..... Need I say more?

If you wouldnt allow this at home then you've done the right thing asking him not to do it again. I would still mention it to the teacher and ask that there is a little closer supervision during computer time. But unfortunately sometimes parents and teachers disagree. Some things you may think are unsuitable for a 5 year old they may think are suitable. I havent seen Ben 10 so I cant comment. But if I felt it was suitable, I wouldnt stop my children playing on it. If I knew a child wasn't allowed I would remind them what Mummy has said and ask them to stop but I wouldn't prevent other children from playing the game so its difficult. Thats if I genuinely thought the parent was wrong though. It may be that the teacher hadn't spotted it and will completely agree with you.

Ben 10 is pretty standard viewing for 5 to 8 year olds. Not sure he should be playing on the Cartoon Network website at school though.

Ok so I've now seen some of the games and basically it's exactly what DS said. You try to punch/ shoot the baddies until they die. That's it: there is nothing else but punching/shooting/violence. Surely nobody could argue this is appropriate for a 5 year old. There is no way I'd let DS's 5&3 play games like this at home.

You're not being PFB. I've had a bit of this with my year 1 one son, who gets to play computer games at school every so often. Tbh i think they just take their eye off the ball sometimes. I know the games you mean and they are violent. Say something to the school, they are not suitable

I can't stand program's like Ben 10, luckily I have managed to avoid it with ds (6). I wouldn't be happy either. As far as I'm aware in ds school they only play educational games, maths, spelling etc. I would def have a word with the teacher, perhaps she wasn't aware but she should have been.

I wouldn't be happy and would definitely say something to school. I had no idea that was what Ben10 was about. My children have never had anything Ben10 related but I have heard of it and a few friends' children are "into" Ben10 so I am surprised that punching & shooting is involved. Totally wrong for little children. No wonder some children punch and hit at school.

This sounds like the Cartoon Network website ....would be surprised if the teacher or at least the TA was not in the room. I wonder I this is something the children can do before lessons start.... Odd though and worth asking about especially as you try to avoid Ben 10 at home.

It sounds very likely the other child has accessed something he uses at home rather than something the school endorses. We've had computer savy children who frequently swapped cbeebies or poisson rouge for their own sites when no one was standing over them to the point they had to be barred from free access to the computers.

Mrz I totally agree- its not really the teachers fault as DS said the teacher hadn't been in that area at the time. I think maybe they haven't realised quite how able some of the year R's might be on the computer. I guess this is a game other child uses at home. DS1 will have seen it and done a google search for it.
I just wanted to check I wasn't being precious because many parents do seem to allow DC's to watch Ben 10 etc at this age. It's no wonder the playground is full of little boys punching and making "pow pow" noises. I have had copycat behaviour at home to deal with from DS1 towards DS2 since he started school along with delightful phrases like "kicking butt" or "kicking ass" which following my research last night also seem to be part of the lovely Ben 10 television experience
Seeing it for myself has only confirmed my worries.

I'm afraid many of the 5 year olds in my class play games like "Call of Duty" and Grand Theft Auto at home with parents blessing [shakes head]

I think children have been punching and making pow pow noises before Ben10 appeared.

I wouldn't be happy with my DC playing games like that on the computer at school either though. I'd probably have a word with the teacher about it.

This must have been during free choice/free play. We have computers that children can access independently. Most of the time, children are on educational software but occasionally a computer savvy child will get on to Cartoon Network or another website. Normally when this happens, I give them a choice of going back to the educational software or coming off the computer. Guess which choice they make? It's always the same children so I keep half an eye out when they are on the computer.

OP, as a mum of a reception child who only watches Cbeebies and milkshake, I totally get what you mean. World book day was a nightmare as a teacher because all the boys came as superheroes or pirates and from first thing in the morning all they wanted to do was fight! I could have hugged the boy who came as Mr Happy

Just to even things up a little, my dd likes to play superhero games too, much more than her big brother does. I don't think Ben 10 is entirely to blame for all the boisterous playground behaviour.

A little boy in my dd's reception class managed to get onto youtube and watch gangham (sp) style and mr bean I think....teachers did eventually notice when all the children in the area started dancing and the little boy was told not to get onto that site again

can't believe a primary school doesn't have a block on Youtube-I wonder if he got to it as a link from something like Newsround website?

I know I shouldn't but I find the idea of class of children doing gangham (sp too?) style quite funny.

BTW I hate that song.

In my school youtube is blocked for children's accounts but not for staff, so I can access the resources but the children can't. Much better!

My class "play" gangham style in the playground galloping along in a huge line