What Kind of Parental Controls Should Parents Have on Video Games?

Awareness

• The first step in gaining control over your child̵7;s video game behavior is awareness. Knowing what kind of games your child plays, how long he plays these games and how often he engages in gaming are all important pieces of information that can help you make decisions as to whether you need to step into your child̵7;s gaming life. In many cases, parental worry is just that: It is worry. After you become aware of your child being a responsible gamer, you can put your mind to rest. Of course, the other side of the coin is that your child may be abusing his gaming privileges, in which case the knowledge of that will help you design strategies to limit his gaming activities. Usually, talking to your child about his gaming habits is the most useful preliminary action to taking any controlling steps.

Supervision

• Awareness alone requires a strong bond of trust between parent and child. While asking your child about his time spent gaming might lead to some important information, children might not be telling the whole story. While parents might not be strongly drawn to video games, sometimes it can behoove you to sit down and watch your child as he plays. Consider the time spent together a mix of family time and espionage. While supervising your child̵7;s gaming time, you will learn about the games he plays and how the games affect him. Supervising your child not only gives you first-hand insight into his gaming experience; the mere presence of a parent might cause him to shut the game off earlier than normal or engage in less inappropriate behavior, such as exchanging personal information or swearing over an online gaming connection. Jung-Hye Kwon, expert on gaming addiction and author of a chapter in Kimberly Young̵7;s book ̶0;Internet Addiction,̶1; recommends parents help adolescents in reinforcing good gaming restriction behavior by providing rewards, such as treating a child to his favorite snack or meal if he abstains from gaming for a set amount of time.

Household Managment

• Should you need to put stricter limits on your child̵7;s gaming habits, the rules of your household go a long way. Household management includes the limits you set on your child̵7;s gaming habits and the organization of the house itself. If you find your child playing games too late at night, leaving him tired in the morning, consider setting a gaming curfew, a time after which games are prohibited. You might even consider setting a time window for gaming so that your child̵7;s gaming life and real life are separate. For example, you might allow your child to play games from ̶0;when you finish your homework until 8 p.m.̶1; or ̶0;only on weekends.̶1; In addition, setting up the gaming room can help indirectly influence your child̵7;s gaming behavior. If you set up the gaming system in a public room, your child might be less willing to play games for a number of reasons: a weaker feeling of immersion, the awkwardness of playing while others are working or the guilt of hogging the TV for too long.

Hardware and Software

• As a gaming system is a piece of hardware in your house, you always have true control over how often games are played. Should your child disobey the gaming rules you have established, you can always unhook the system from the TV. For PC gaming, taking the system away is more difficult, as you might need the PC for other, non-gaming, reasons. Your child having his own computer makes things harder as the computer is now the main tool for schoolwork. However, even if your child is a PC-gamer, you still have a way to control his gaming habits -- through software. Many types of software related to controlling or monitoring gaming behavior are on the market. You can install this on the gaming PC to monitor how much time your child spends gaming and how much gaming he plays. You can even block applications or sites if you feel things have gotten out of hand.