As a child interested in playing games online and as a parent of children who are interested in games on the web, it is important to know which are the top five kids games and to understand how they work and what age group frequents them.
The top five kids games on the web
There are thousands of games available to children on the internet and many of them are inappropriate for young people. While many of these sites may have age limits for users, there is nothing stopping your child from lying about his or her age to open an account and play the game. The graphics on many of these games are incredibly realistic and many offer scenes of gratuitous violence and there is often bad language.
Many of these online games allow for users to chat to one another via instant messaging which means your child could be in danger of talking to a predator or being bullied online. However, there are many educational and harmless games that your children can play safely. Make sure you know which games are the right ones for your child and make sure that your child sticks to them.
Many of the available games are free and your child can play them without having to pay any subscriptions. However, some games may offer a free trial or certain segments for free, but the require that the user pays to use the rest of the game or to use the game in full.
The following are five of the most popular games for children online in no particular order.
- Moshi Monsters
- Club Penguin
- PBS Kids game range
- Kinderweb children’s games
- Learn4good games
Other popular games include games from popular children’s television. Dora the Explorer, Jake and the Neverland Pirates and the Mickey Mouse Club House are just some of the television shows that have games for children to play.
The following is a video tour of the popular childrens online game Moshi Monsters…
Video: Moshi Monsters:
Protecting your children online
In order to prevent your children from accessing the inappropriate content that is freely available on the internet, you should acquaint yourself with some of the more popular children’s games and find out the age group that plays them, how they work, whether there is a possibility of the users communicating and whether there is graphic violence, sexual references or other aspects that could be harmful to your children. The following are some tips for making sure that your children are safe when they are online:
- Find out what games they are playing
Ask your children which games they are playing, play with them or check on them while they are playing. You want to be sure that you know where your child is on the internet at all times.
- Keep the computer in a central place in the house with the screen facing towards the centre of the room so that your child feels less inclined to visit sites that they should not.
- Limit the time periods that your child is allowed to play online games. As well as being dangerous, too much time online is not good for your child’s development or behaviour.
- Check up on your child’s browser history to make sure that they have not been visiting sites that they shouldn’t.
- Have open, honest discussions with your children about how to conduct themselves on the internet, the dangers that are out there, what they should avoid and how to report inappropriate websites or comments.
- When you child asks to set up an account for a specific website, help them to do it and make sure you know what their username and password is. That way you can check up on their account at any time to check what they are doing online.
- There are also many child protection systems online to help filter your child’s web searches and make sure that he or she is not faced with something that he or she cannot handle.