INTRO
Video games are everywhere and offer ways to entertain, educate and get creative however are children always safe when playing these games. When creating video game consoles or video games in itself it’s always vital for children to be protected from nasty surprises. There are always risks such as these for young children when playing games which is why considerations are taken into account and are used to protect children when playing online or just playing games in general. I’m going to be talking about these different considerations and the measures taken to ensure children are safe both when playing games online and offline.
Age Ratings
First of all what are Age Ratings? Age Ratings are used to tell people whether a game is suitable or not for a certain age group. Currently in gaming there are 5 different age ratings. These 5 different age ratings are.
- For ages 3 and above
- For ages 7 and above
- For ages 12 and above
- For ages 16 and above
and - For ages 18 and above
So how are Age Ratings decided and who decides what age rating they think a certain game should be? A Games Age Rating is decided by fitting certain criteria’s. The Age Ratings are decided by the game creators themselves and they give the rating based upon the following criteria’s I was talking about earlier which are.
- Does the game show Sex
- Does the game show Violence
- Does the game contain Bad Language
- Does the game show Gambling
- Does the game show Discrimination
- Does the game show Drugs
- Does the game show or cause Fear
and/or - Does the game use Online
So how are children protected and prevented from playing games with an Age Rating higher than the child’s current age? First of all it is illegal to sell 16+ or 18+ games to people without an ID to prove they are of age to purchase the gamr. Also the majority of gaming consoles nowadays have parental control features allowing parents to stop children from playing games which are rated higher than the child’s current age.
Censorship
So Censorship is essentially ways to censor things which may be deemed too bad for children to see or hear. This means that games might blur things out or edit swear words to just *beeping* noises.
Child Protection on the internet and Cyber Security
When playing games online there are always ways to communicate with one another which can be a really good thing. At the same time this can also be a very dangerous place for children. Most games online allow people to message or talk to each other by using mics. However some games protect children from these things by enabling features such as muting people in game meaning children won’t have to hear bad things that other people are saying. There are also ways to report people online so that people can be stopped from playing online and sending hateful or rude messages to children or anyone no matter what the age in general. By reporting other gamers who ask for your personal details or say something bad or hateful which creates a safer and a better online environment for kids when playing games online because it stops the other person from talking to them and can possibly get them banned from using that game or that game consoles online services.
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