Acceptable age for gaming?

djcj

djcj

djcj

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A question for the parents in here......

At what age have you/will you allow your kid to play on a console? My five year old has started talking about video games as it seems a few kids in his class have been playing on them.

My wife is adamant it's too young and I'm undecided.

That being said, it appears some of the five year olds in my boy's class have been playing fortnite and COD, which I think is definitely out of order. Whereas some others just play fifa and minecraft.

What age would you deem acceptable for 100% supervised gaming of non violent games such as fifa etc?
 
Its another form of entertainment - should be supervised at that age imo. Similar to watching TV or youtube kids or whatever.

I would agree COD etc is not appropriate though. My kids have been playing Wii/Wii U games like Wii sports and mario bros and they love it. Wii Sports has that multiplayer as well so particularly fun to play.

Personally I avoid online games for them - I cant supervise it 100% all the time and I dont trust nobody online to behave.
 
5 is fine as long as you are selecting what they play. Minecraft and some of the Lego games perhaps - something that you can co-op together. CoD way too early for that, I think.

A Switch might be a good choice at this age.
 
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Playing COD/Fortnight at 5 is indeed bonkers and a bit disturbing if parents think that’s ok.
I wouldn’t say gaming at 5 is a problem , perhaps a Nintendo would be a better choice though, Mario and what not.
My nephew who is 5 is still only interested in cartoons and playing outside or toys/board games.
 
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As long as it's a healthy amount of playing solo or family time playing together then I'd say 5 is great. Me and my daughter played Mario Kart Wii when she was 4 and she loved it! I tried using the steering controls like she did and I don't jest, she actually beat me for a while until I got used to it!

Cod and fortnite are closer to 10 year old I'd say due to them being purely shooting games.

Although being blown up by a blue shell by a 4 year old is pretty violent as well!
 
xiphrex said:
Its another form of entertainment - should be supervised at that age imo. Similar to watching TV or youtube kids or whatever.

I would agree COD etc is not appropriate though. My kids have been playing Wii/Wii U games like Wii sports and mario bros and they love it. Wii Sports has that multiplayer as well so particularly fun to play.

Personally I avoid online games for them - I cant supervise it 100% all the time and I dont trust nobody online to behave.
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Yeah the wife states she would be ok with a Nintendo Wii, but the boy has his heart set on a PlayStation.

I'd rather get the PlayStation as I could then game on it after he's gone to bed too.
 
Any age, it's just another form of media.

Just control time played and, most importantly, what they play.

Don't be one of those parents that let their kids play 18 rated games.
 
My boy started playing my old 360 2 years ago probably when he was 5, started with Lego Jurassic park as was proper into dinosaurs, kept him entertained and he learnt about puzzles etc.

When he got to 6 he wanted newer better games (was into star wars by this point, still is) and wanted the new star wars Lego game. So I made him earn half the money for the series X he has now, said if he earnt half, I would pay the other half for his birthday. Just had to do simple things like get dressed on his own, do his own breakfast and the like. Each time he earnt a star and 1 star was equal to £1. If he was naughty we would take stars away.

Collected enough stars 1 week before his birthday.

I could have got him a switch but because he was used to the Xbox controller and system it was an easier transition for him.

I would say 5 is an ok age to start playing consoles, obviously he's not gonna be playing GTA and such but the old Lego games would be a really good start point. Also means you can spend time with him in co-op play.
 
Console itself no limit so long as they're old enough to treat it with respect and not break it first time they use it. Games are another matter there are clearly games aimed at kids with colourful graphics and cute dragons and whatnot and then theres clearly very adult content so its really a matter of supervision of what they're playing
 
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robfosters said:
My dad did and it did me no harm at all
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Yeah it's a funny time now. I seem to recall playing GTA 3 when it first launched on PS2, I'd have been 11 at the time. I also remember my mum having to go into Argos to pick up GTA Vice City for me when I was 12.

I guess back then with graphics being a bit blocky, we all knew it was only a video game. I suppose kids these days don't see the difference. I imagine online gaming also has a bad negative effect on kids, back when I was playing it it was only SP.

As a new parent it's not something I've even thought about, although having a daughter she's probably less interested in these types of games anyway.
 
robfosters said:
My dad did and it did me no harm at all
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Games are a bit different nowadays.

Maybe the carpet comment was too general, I guess it depends on the parent/child. They're all different. Perhaps it's more don't be one of those parents who doesn't know/care about how much and what they're playing.

I think unsupervised access to the internet is more of an issue for kids than any games tbh.

As for the type of console, I'd go for one you can use too OP. I don't think it's really that big of a deal when there's all sorts of appropriate games available.
 
beachBOYken said:
Playing COD/Fortnight at 5 is indeed bonkers and a bit disturbing if parents think that’s ok.
I wouldn’t say gaming at 5 is a problem , perhaps a Nintendo would be a better choice though, Mario and what not.
My nephew who is 5 is still only interested in cartoons and playing outside or toys/board games.
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My nephews (twins) had Nintendo handhelds at like 5 - probably the DS but been awhile now, they were allowed to play like Mario Kart, etc. I don't believe they've ever taken to stuff like COD though.

Even younger than that they'd play stuff like the Test Drive Unlimited supervised by their dad - kind of amusing as they wanted to play a car game when staying over at my parents and all I had with me was TDU2 (which I wasn't aware they'd played before) - they were most disappointed I was making them avoid the car wash due to their age, they knew exactly what was at the car wash.
 
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