Digital Parenting and Safety Blog

The ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) is a non-profit organization that assigns computer and video game content ratings, enforces industry-adopted advertising guidelines and helps ensure responsible online privacy practices for the interactive entertainment software industry.  The ESRB was started so consumers, especially parents, could make informed purchasing decisions.

The ESRB Rating is made up of two equally important parts:  Rating Symbol and Content Descriptors.  This two-part approach provides parents with a more granular understanding of the games they might buy and the ones their kids are playing – online and off.

Ratings Symbols

Rating Symbols appear on the front of the game box.  These symbols suggest age appropriateness for the game.  The following is a description for each Rating Symbol.

EC (Early Childhood).  These games are for children 3 and older.  When reviewed, parents found no unsuitable content for children.

E (Everyone). These games are for children 6 years of age or older.  May contain mild violence or mild language.

E10+ (Everyone 10 and older). These games are appropriate for children 10 years or older.  May contain mild violence, mild language or minimal suggestive themes.

T (Teen). These games are suitable for children 13 years or older.  They may contain violence, suggestive language, gambling, and/or use of strong language.

M (Mature). These games are for children 17 years or older.  They may contain blood, gore, extreme violence and language, and/or sexual content.

AO (Adults Only). These games are for persons 18 years or older.  They include prolonged scenes of violence, strong sexual content and nudity.

RP (Rating Pending). This symbol is when a game is awaiting rating.  Only seen in advertising prior to game being released.

Important Note: Even if a game has been rated for younger kids, players may still have the ability to chat online with other gamers during game-play.  Be sure to check out all game options and all privacy settings when your child wants to try out a new game.

Content Descriptors

Content Descriptors appear on the back of a video game next to the rating symbol and often in the footer of an online game's website.  These descriptors indicate elements in a game that may have triggered a particular rating and/or may be of interest or concern.  There are 30 unique descriptors including, "Animated Blood", "Crude Humor", "Intense Violence", "Strong Lyrics" and "Use of Tobacco".

So next time your child asks you to pick up a new game, flip the game over and look for the rating.  If they want to play an online game, check out the website first to make sure the site is following industry standards to help you protect your child.  If there is no ESRB Rating, you might want to consider a different game.  ESRB Ratings make it easy for you to make an informed decision about the age-appropriateness of the game for your child.

To learn more about ESRB Ratings, visit www.esrb.org.

This post originally appeared on www.timwoda.com

Tim Woda is a passionate advocate for protecting children from today's scariest digital dangers - cyberbullying, sexting and predators.

Designed for ages 6 to 14, Club Penguin is a virtual world where kids can play games, earn virtual currency, customize their world, and interact with each other in a kid-friendly environment.

Club Penguin Overview

Kids roam the cartoon world of Penguin Island in the form of colorful penguin avatars, playing games to earn virtual coins which are used to “buy” new clothes, furniture, and other extras to decorate and customize their avatars, their igloos, and furry little pets called “Puffles.”

Free accounts can access basic play, but to get the really “good” merchandise and reach higher levels on the games a user must purchase a paid membership for about $5 a month.

Safety Features of Club Penguin

Though users of any age can join and play, the site is designed for kids. There is no third-party advertising on Club Penguin pages, and all the games are rated E.

Parents can set their child’s account to either ultimate safe chat (kids can only select pre-approved phrases from a list) or standard safe chat (free typing is allowed, but it’s overseen by paid human moderators and automatic filters that block swear words, phone numbers, and words like “mom” or “school” that could accompany identifying information.)

If your child joins Club Penguin, you should sign up for a parent account. With a parent account, you can monitor your child’s activity on Club Penguin and use the “timer” feature to specify when and how long your child can play.

While it may not be the most productive way for a child to spend large amounts of time, most parents agree that Club Penguin is a fun, safe site that introduces kids to the basics of online gaming and social networking.

Jenny Evans is a mother of three and a freelance writer specializing in parenting, childhood, and family issues.

Sort of a Tamagotchi-Pokémon hybrid, Neopets is an online game where players earn and spend virtual Neopoints to customize and care for up to 4 colorful cartoon animals.

Neopets launched in 1999 as a gaming site for bored college students, and today there are more teens and adults on Neopets than there are on comparable sites like Webkinz or Club Penguin.

After registering (kids under 13 must do so with a parent’s email), players can buy clothes, food, toys, and even houses for their Neopets. They can also track their Neopet’s stats as they train it to fight other virtual animals in the Battledome.

Many people can and do play Neopets for free (there is no fee for signing up), but a lot of the games and items can only be accessed by spending Neocash – which is bought via PayPal with real-life money. Gambling-esque games to win Neopoints (betting, scratch cards, spinning a wheel) are present, but are only open to kids over 13.

Parents sometimes complain about the overwhelming saturation of off-site ads on Neopets.com – ads are easy to click by mistake and hard for a young child to differentiate from the game. (You can get rid of the ads, but only with a Neopets Premium membership that costs $7.99 a month.)

Unlike other virtual world online games, Neopets doesn’t focus on social networking. In fact, there is minimal interaction among Neopets players. The main form of communication is through message boards, which are open to ages 13+ only. In the message boards, players are represented by Neopets avatars and can “friend” others, block users from contacting them, or send private messages to each other with NeoMail.

Neopets messages boards are automatically filtered for profanity and overseen by live moderators. Discussing dating and romance, religion, or politics can be grounds for getting your account “frozen.”

Though it might seem like a child-oriented site because of its cartoon graphics, Neopets is actually most appropriate for kids over the age of 12 or 13. Not only does it require fluent reading, but some of the concepts involved (such as investing in the stock market) are difficult for younger kids to grasp.

Jenny Evans is a mother of three and a freelance writer specializing in parenting, childhood, and family issues.

The newest Nintendo game console is anticipated to arrive this spring, and it’s pretty different from other gaming systems on the market. Without the aid of glasses, Nintendo claims to create 3-dimensional effects in its new portable 3DS console.

But it’s not for kids under 6, Nintendo warns, because it could potentially damage their vision.

Nintendo cites research from child development specialists saying the strain of assimilating 3D effects could potentially lead to lazy eye or other vision problems in the developing eyes of children under 6.

Nintendo plans to include a parental function to “toggle down” the 3D nature of the game, making it effectively 2D and therefore safe for even very young users.

Regardless of age, viewing movies or video games in 3D is more difficult for the eye so it’s recommended that everyone (even teens and adults) take a break from the 3DS every 30 minutes to avoid headaches or nausea.

Jenny Evans is a mother of three and a freelance writer specializing in parenting, childhood, and family issues.

Given the proliferation of teen gamers out there, Yale researchers were curious about what types of behaviors gaming was most often associated with. Out of the 4,028 respondents in the study, 2,064 of them (51.2%) reported playing at least an hour of video games per week. Here’s what they found about those kids.

• Boys were much more likely (76.3%) to be gamers than girls (29.2%)

• Gaming was significantly more prevalent in Asians and students with lower grades

• Different behaviors were typical for male gamers versus female gamers

One of the most interesting parts of the study was that boys who played video games were more likely to have higher GPAs, never smoke, or never use marijuana. Aside from high caffeine consumption, there were no risky health behaviors associated with male gaming.

Not so for the female gaming set. Girls who played video games were likely to smoke occasionally, get into physical fights, carry a weapon to school, and have a higher body mass index (BMI.) To their credit, female gaming also usually meant never having used marijuana, never having drunk alcohol, and less likelihood of depression.

Only about 5% of the gamers surveyed could be classified as “addicted” to video games. But of those addicted, there were also noticeable trends: addicted boys were likely to be regular smokers, depressed, and aggressive at school, while addicted girls were more prone to drug use, depression, and physical fights.

Remember that this study can only observe the correlation between behaviors, not tell us what caused what. Video game addiction doesn’t necessarily cause depression, and girls who play games aren’t necessarily going to become physically aggressive.

But parents, take this research into account when determining house rules and acceptable game play for your teens.

Jenny Evans is a mother of three and a freelance writer specializing in parenting, childhood, and family issues.

Xbox.  Xbox 360.  Xbox LIVE.  What’s the difference between these systems and what do we need to know as parents.  Let’s start with the basics.

When I was a kid “social gaming” meant sitting around with your friends on beanbag chairs, waiting for your turn at Pac-Man with the one joy stick we had.  The definition of “social gaming” for our children’s generation is very different.

Today, our children can pick up their controller and play a game of Halo with someone 1,000 miles away by connecting online.  They can check to see if their friends are “online” and join them in “multi-player mode”, all while sitting on beanbag chairs in different houses.  The world of gaming is changing rapidly and as parents we need to change the image we have of how kids play video games.

Microsoft’s Xbox is just one example of “social gaming”.    These systems allow the user to connect online through your homes internet connection to download new games, chat or play with others users, download and watch movies, or even share photos.

So what is the difference between Xbox’s systems?

Xbox – Developed by Microsoft and released in 2001.  Xbox is the original gaming system’s name.  It allows up to 4 player controllers.  In 2002, Microsoft announced the Xbox LIVE which would allow players to connect to others online.

Xbox 360 – This is the second gaming console released by Microsoft in 2005.  It is the “successor” of the Xbox.

Xbox LIVE - Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE is basically the online service for Xbox or Xbox 360.  Xbox Live is a paid subscription to Microsoft’s online gaming and content distribution service.  It allows the player to play against others online, chat with friends from school or people they meet on Xbox LIVE, download and trade photos and even download new games, movies and television shows.  When a player registers for LIVE, they create what is called their GAMERTAG, which is a “nickname” that will be displayed on Xbox LIVE so other players can see what games you play, how well you play them.  It is like a screen name.

If you are thinking about connecting your child’s Xbox to the Internet or already have a child connected, remember, as soon as your child is connected, the gaming console becomes a social networking tool.  In fact, Xbox Live recently gave users the ability to interact directly with Facebook and Twitter.  If you have parental control software on your family computers, that will not limit access to these sites if accessed through Xbox LIVE.

Without the internet connection, the Xbox and Xbox 360 are just like the games we grew up with – only with much better games (sorry Pac-Man).  You can only play with the people physically located in the same room.

Understanding the Risks

Online gaming is fun, exciting and today it is a part of childhood.  Inherently there is nothing wrong with it.  But just like any other place our children connect to the Internet, there is only one-degree of separation between our children and those intent on doing our children harm.  Parents need to understand the risks.

In Portsmouth, Virginia a 24 year old man was arrested and charged with a felony after asking for nude photos of a 13 year old via the Xbox LIVE.  In Saratoga Springs, New York a 20 year old man was arrested after finding the address of a 15 year old girl and sending her packages and flowers and sending thousands of text messages through her cell phone.  The parents of the girl refused all of the packages and changed the cell phone number, but the predator did not stop there.  He drove to her home and after finding the new cell phone number, sent text messages threatening to “rape” her and her little sister.  Cyberbullying is rampant!

Last night I had the opportunity to spend three hours in the FBI’s Washington field office with their Child Exploitation Task Force.  One of my key take-aways the meeting was that in their opinion, parents are simply not aware of the risks their children are exposed to online.  For one reason or another, few parents think bad things are going to happen to their child.  They think their child is too smart, too careful, too responsible, etc.  Predators are experts at finding our children.  They always go where the children are.  They are experts at approaching them and “grooming” them.  And it happens to smart, careful, responsible kids everyday.  In fact, while at the FBI office, a special agent demonstrated this live for the meeting attendees.  He created a brand new online profile, pretending to be a 13 year old and went online into a chat room.  Within 60 seconds, his fake profile was being chatted up by several adults and within 10 minutes, one of the random strangers – who identified himself as a 40 year old man – had sent the child a nude photo and was speaking in a sexual manner to the “child”.

This is a Parenting Challenge, not an Xbox Challenge

It is important to understand that this is not an Xbox challenge.  This is a parenting challenge that applies to all internet-accessible devices.  The world is now wired but our kids are still kids, no matter how smart or trustworthy they are.  It is important that we educate and engage our children on an ongoing basis about how to stay safe online.   A few of very simple rules:

1. STOP- When online strangers try engage your child, they need to STOP, meaning they should not respond.

1. BLOCK – They should BLOCK the  stranger so that they can not continue to communicate with them

1. TELL – Our kids need to know to TELL a trusted adult, hopefully their parent.

And of course we need to make sure our children know that they should never meet someone in real life that they met online – ever.  You might consider reviewing an Internet & Mobile Safety Pledge with your kids.

It is also critical that you have a way to supervise your children’s usage of Xbox LIVE on an ongoing basis.  Using Xbox LIVE’s parental controls complimented by our service should provide you with the peace of mind you need to allow your children to safely enjoy Xbox LIVE’s amazing technology while playing with family and approved friends.

This post originally appeared on www.timwoda.com

Tim Woda is a passionate advocate for protecting children from today's scariest digital dangers - cyberbullying, sexting and predators.