Gaming can be a positive thing. Ensuring that you set controls for lengths of play, who they can talk to, what they can access can ensure that gaming and on-line play can be a safe and enjoyable aspect.

“When I play I can be someone else”

• Escapism – You’re not just escaping your surroundings, you’re escaping yourself. In movies and books you get to see into another world, in video games you get to be. You can be a professional footballer or a mythical creature in a fantasy world. The experiences are endless. 
• Mastery – Games can bring a sense of achievement. You get to level up, see your score on the leader board, often quicker than in the physical world, making it motivating to continue to play. 
• Exploration – It can often feel like we don’t have a lot of control over our life, but with games can be in control. We get to choose the games we play, and we get to choose the way we engage in them, giving young people a sense of autonomy. 
• Risk Taking – Young people are more likely to take risks than adults, and in games, if you die, you just press restart and try again. It doesn’t really impact your physical life as much as for example, failing a test at school. 

“It takes a long time to get somewhere so you just open the packs” 

• Competition – If you play football or do gymnastics, you only get to compete once or twice a week. In games you’re able to compete every single day for hours on end.  
• To make money – Esports and streaming provide opportunities to turn gaming into a career. Just like in professional sport or the music industry, the chances of reaching the top are slim, but that doesn’t make it any less appealing to players.
• A chance to create – The opportunity to create new worlds and have control over them can be very attractive in games like Minecraft for example. You can’t really do that in the physical world, and certainly not to the same scale. 

“I can chat to all my friends when they’re not actually with me…

or if they just want to tell me stuff in private” 

• Socialise – Whilst playing online you don’t just get to build on existing friendships, you get to establish new ones. With online forums, live streaming and Esports channels, you’re a part of a culture and a community that is larger than yourself or any single game. 
• Stress Buster – We all need to take a break from daily life at times and how we choose to do that can differ. Gaming can be a way to escape these pressures, but if it is causing you not to deal with the things you need to deal with, that can be a problem. 
• Collecting – Many players enjoy visual progression as much as skill progression in games. With in-app purchases, loot boxes and microtransactions, you now have many ways  to collect different items, not just games, but character items too. 

Gaming can be a positive thing. Ensuring that you set controls for lengths of play, who they can talk to, what they can access can ensure that gaming and on-line play can be a safe and enjoyable aspect.

Loot boxes are virtual items that can be purchased in games using real money or in-game currency. Once purchased and opened, users will find a randomised selection of items that customise or alter the user’s experience of the game. The user will not receive any physical objects in the offline world.  

The use of in-game currencies has expanded into a wide range of gaming titles, including single player games that would not traditionally have included these features. One of the main benefits of in-game currencies for game developers/publishers is that they can create a sense of separation from real-life value and real-world money. If a player were to purchase £20 worth of in-game currency to spend on cosmetic items such as character skins or appearance modifiers, they are less likely to think about the ‘value for money’ of each individual item they buy. It also allows developers to structure their pricing within digital marketplaces and stores, to encourage more real-world money to be spent on credits, tokens, or whatever form their in-game currency may take.   

In research published by the Gambling Commission in 2019, of the 52% of 11–16-year-olds who were aware of what loot boxes were, just under half (44%) said they had paid money to open one.  

What is a PEGI Rating?

If your child asks to watch a film at the cinema or at home, you look at the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) rating to check if it is suitable, so why would you not check the rating of the games they want to play?  

Just like films, games have ratings to help you decide if the content is suitable for your child. This is based on their age, not their gaming ability. 

PEGI stands for Pan European Game Information.  It looks at seven different categories to decide on a suitable rating. 

What does it mean to me? 

As a parent, the first practical step you can take to protect your children from gaming-related harm is to ensure that you understand and adhere to the PEGI age ratings that accompany every game. 

What are the ratings?

PEGI ratings exist to ensure that children and young people are not exposed to harmful, adult content and clearly presents the minimum age your children should be before they can play the game, and gives an overview of the potentially harmful content they will be exposed to if you allow them to play the game. 

A common misconception with PEGI ratings on video games is that they merely act as a guideline to its difficulty as you would see on board games such as Monopoly.  As a parent, it is vital to understand that this is not the case.  PEGI 12, 16 and 18 ratings have been legally enforceable in the UK since 2012 and should not be played by anyone under that recommended age.   

The content of games with a PEGI 3 rating is considered suitable for all age groups. Games with a PEGI rating of 3: Animal Crossing FIFA Rocket League Games with this category should not contain any sounds or pictures that are likely to frighten young children. A very mild form of violence is acceptable. No bad language should be heard.