5 Tips for Staying Safe in Online Multiplayer Games

Online gaming can be such a great experience for our children, teaching them so much.  They learn to work together and that teamwork often yields better results.  Their vocabulary increases, using words such as melee, crafting and obsidian in Minecraft.  And if KS2 SATs included Clash of Clans maths, who knows what would happen to levels!  For full enjoyment we need to ensure our children conduct their online gaming safely and if things aren’t quite right, they know what to do...

1. Encourage your child to use a nickname and not their real name when playing online.

2. Make sure they know not to share personal information that could identify them, like their school, address or phone number

3. If you allow your youngster to use the voice chat function on their console, remind them that the people they talk to are still strangers, and to be cautious.   Remember the other people may be older and language used might reflect this…turning off might be better.

4. If someone says or does something online that makes your child uncomfortable, make sure they know they can report this

5. If in doubt, keep your child’s online multiplayer experience to real-life friends only. You can oversee their friends list, restrict their contacts through the console’s parental controls, and even disable multiplayer entirely