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Gaming Guidance for Parents
Aside from online/home schooling and the hour of outdoor exercise that is currently allowed, keeping your children occupied with constructive activities can be a difficult task. Maybe your children spend their free time playing video games but you don’t or you love games but can’t find ones to play together. In either case, how do you find out if your children are playing games that are age appropriate or beneficial or harmful to their mental health? How do you find games the whole family can enjoy?
Two valuable resources are available to parents – Family Video Game Database and Spawnpoint.
The Family Video Game Database was created by journalist Andy Robertson in collaboration with the games industry.
FVGD is thorough, providing information such as an overview of a game, its duration, the number of players, any associated cost, its PEGI rating, the game's accessibility and suggestions of similar games.
Lists are provided to make it easier to find games that address certain issues during lockdown:
- Hope through play
- Be a good neighbour
- Find calm from the storm
- Educational games that are also good games
- Get fit playing great games
Family Video Game Database website
Spawnpoint is the creation of Guardian Games Editor Keza MacDonald. As a parent of three, she uses her experience to provide a list of games by age group that have educational elements. She also does a podcast.
Keza explains how children interact with games at different age levels and follows this guidance with games that she thinks are most appropriate and helpful.
