WOW Taboo: Kids and Online Gaming
By jennetaken
@jennetaken (13)
March 18, 2007 11:23am CST
Kids and WOW: For or Against?
I'm talking about children 6-12. (The typical age group that most online gaming sites put a parental requirement on or just plan don't allow anyone under the age of 13 to sign up.)
I personally am against it. My daughter is 8 and she wouldn't know the first thing about character development. Plus, I have had friends that allowed thier children to play, even have thier own accounts, most of the time it ended in tears. I just don't see how parents can put thier children in a situation where they can freely talk to anyone and anyone can say anything they want to them, filtered or not.
There are plenty of games out there for kids that are appropriate for each age and limit chat options, if at all. Its well worth a few days of searching to find games that are safe, fun and entertaining for kids.
What do you think?
5 responses
@Lougara (20)
• United States
27 Mar 07
I think that kids shouldn't play wow period- no one under the age of 16- they fill guild/general/trade chat with nonsense, they run around begging for gold, they ask for items, and they also freak out over cussing and fill the screen with yelling.
I also am SO tired of seeing 12 year old noobs running around in their underwear begging for gold for being naked.
I mean, the game is rated TEEN, not E.
1 person likes this
@muppetsnap (229)
• Canada
20 Mar 07
I think that it's the other people in the game that are going to be the problem. I guess you could try and remove them from all the channels, then they can't see any messages from other people? If you are playing along with them, you should then be able to ensure a pretty interference-free play experience.
I think that the gameplay itself is a good learning experience for children, it deals with making decisions, spending money, and so on. So if you can remove the elements of interaction (and you are right - who would pop their eight year old into a chatroom alone??) then it's a great game for children - especially as there are good parental controls available to restrict their playing time and so on.
@jennetaken (13)
•
20 Mar 07
I might agree with you if the child were mature enough to understand the concept of the game, but it still doesn't account for the addictiveness of the game. My friends daughter at 9 was very mature for her age and was very sweet. After 3 months of playing WOW with her mom only, she started sneaking game play at 2 am and early times like that. Then she began to stress out and have anxiety, lying to get time on the computer, etc. I don't even think some adults should play this game til they learn self-control. Children don't have the capasity to control thems selfs under these conditions.
Its just not good for kids in my oppinion.
Plus there are loads of online games that teach kids the same thing without being too mature for thier age group and without chat.
@Sixpod (7)
• United States
21 Mar 07
I would definitely say no. ONLY because I have played WoW with a few kids ages 10-12, and they don't know the first thing about the game. It's very difficult to go through instances and these kids just takes all the greens and blues that pop up, they need instead of greed (meaning they need when they actually DONT). It makes gaming that much more frustrating.
