I never got totally hooked on computer games as a kid despite having Sega Game Gear and Game Boys in the house.

Fast forward 25 years and I now have 4, 7 and 9yr olds. I’m reluctant to let them play computer games as I’ve seen far too many of their friends turn into computer game zombies. Their parents don’t seem to be able/willing to moderate their computer game usage. These kids are wonderful kids, and the parents are good friends of mine. So I don’t see why I would have any more success/willpower to keep my kids’ usage in check.

But the pressure to let them get Minecraft is coming from all sides, including my wife. It’s not an argument as such, but apparently I am socially excluding my eldest since all the other kids have it. I’ve said no. I won’t let a games console or anything more than ipad games in the house.

Am I being fair?
Is Minecraft just the modern Lego, and am I depriving my kids of a learning experience?

yes give it a go.. as with all things in moderation. How do you currently deal with tv time? As long as you have a varied environment it just fits as another piece of the jigsaw. The big problem is are you going to allow online play? Local multiplayer helps share the experience which is great on the console.

My 5-yr-old is now saving up to buy Minecraft Lego – which is a bit weird, but whatever. Creativity is good, however it’s realised.

Don’t let them find the YouTube videos, though. Stampy is ****ing annoying.

My kids have Nintendo, however I really regulate their game time. It’s easy for them to become too immersed.

Online play is what scares me the most. At least when I was a kid I had to go to a friend’s house to play multiplayer. These days kids’ friendships only seem to exist in cyberspace.

You could get the cheaper version of minecraft on the iPad, then you could restrict their use as you do now?

Our eldest is Minecraft daft at the moment. Personally I think it’s ace the stuff she’s creating and the problem solving is all good. I much prefer her on that than some of the TV that’s on. I do know she’d much rather be outside and she has enough extracurricular activities with dancing and swimming. Only you can decide if the balance is right though but as a game there are a lot less educational things that they could be doing indoors.

I’m reluctant to let them play computer games as I’ve seen far too many of their friends turn into computer game zombies

then your job is to stop that. If your friends aren’t managing that, they’re not as great parents as you think they are, as it’s perfectly possible to moderate on line time

Minecraft is about the least offensive game available. It’s pretty much ALL about creativity. His on-line friends will largely be the kids your son knows already anyway. If not, then again, it’s your job to make sure he’s not interacting with people he shouldn’t. (although there’s more prescient dangers IMO than red top scare stories of cyber stalking

The creativity shown by my 6 and 9 year olds is amazing. Much rather they play Minecraft over most other computery type games.

Rewind 3 years and I was having the same dilemma, It’s a tough one.

I’ll try and give you what I have learnt……..
First of all, you need to accept that the world is a different place to what it was 25 years ago, I’m not being condescending here, when I was a kid I was smoking at 11 because that’s what kids round our way did, the older lads smoked so that’s what we did. Everyone smoked so I’d nick them off my grandad or buy them singularly from the shops. Imagine selling kids fags nowadays. We’d hang out till it got dark and then stay out a bit longer cos that’s what the older lads did, we dindnt get grounded cos that American shite wasn’t around then we’d get smacked cod that’s what parents did.

My son doesn’t know what it’s like to have running battles with the school a few miles away, walking a mile to school, missing the bus home, he soscialises with his mates from school on line whilst playing MINECRAFT or wait for COD Ghosts, you’ve got that one to come, he can’t hang out with his mates because other people can’t control their behaviour. So i crumbled and gave in if only to stop having to listen to that **** Stampy bastard long nose.

Playing on line is a massive part of kids growing up nowadays and it’s become an issue in our house, so we met our son use his on Fri Night after school, on a sat after footy practice in the morning and In between homework and Sunday after he’s played Rugby after home work is finished and then off for 6:30.

I’m eating bacon sarnies drinking coffee he’s guess where, yep upstairs on the play station while I try and find gum shield and rugby boots.

Good luck

These days kids’ friendships only seem to exist in cyberspace.

Now that isn’t true at all now is it?

Who said that?

These days kids’ friendships only seem to exist in cyberspace.

that’s really quite a gross generalisation which reveals why you’re so anxious about this. My youngest plays online a lot…almost exclusively with friends he’s been spending all day with at school.
He also goes to cadets,climbing club once a week, swimming club, etc.
He’s far and away more creative, more social, and just annoyingly bloody cleverer than I ever was at 14, when all I was doing is hanging around furtively outside shops or thrashing a bike around a woods.

I really don’t understand what the fear is here? Zombies?! Perhaps live a little and work out a compromise by yourself with your kids.

Its not like you are cutting them loose with an Xbox and Call of Duty.
Minecraft is like virtual lego…

Just let your kids have the game and stop being so precious. If they subsequently turn into zombies, that’s your fault, not the games.

My daughter built huge worlds and as above, to see the creativity is a pleasure.

Aside from that, had hours of fun with my daughter when she was young, playing Mario Kart

Minecraft is a benign and creative game. You need to control access though. We have one telly and one PlayStation, so no hiding in rooms forever. Kids are still young though.

You could bargain with them though. As in we will only buy it if you agree to limit it to say 4 hours a week. Get a special clock for the purpose of recording it or something if you have trouble.

I might go down the route of getting it on the iPad. It seems a decent compromise – there’s no multiplayer or online stuff to contend with then.

Get them to do a load of chores in exchange for the game..

there’s no multiplayer or online stuff to contend with then.

The point of games like minecraft at the age your lad is, is the on line multiplayer aspect. What about that worries you?

My boys – 8 and 5 – have been on it since they got up this morning, which they’re allowed to do at weekends. But we’ve got the PlayStation in the lounge so they have to share the TV, and it’s now off for breakfast, and will not be going back on again until the house has been tidied, and they’ve been out for a walk with me and the dogs. It’s fine in moderation.

Thanks all for the input. It is agreed with my wife to get it for the IPad. My daughter got some iTunes vouchers for Christmas, so it seems fair to let her get the game herself. If she wants to play multiplayer then she can physically pop into her friend’s house, like she did yesterday.

Now we’re all off for a 3 hour walk in the freezing cold, with my daughter and her friend.

Gaming is now a part of growing up for many kids and why not? The key is balance. My two (7 & 8) have a PS4, iPads, a wii and access to a Mac. They use these a fair bit, but between them they also race BMX, play rugby, football and hockey, love Egyptology and other ancient periods (they love the British museum) , cooking, dressing up, hanging with their mates etc blah blah blah.

My opinion is that ‘banning’ gaming is counter productive. Your approach to parenting overall is what counts. Helping them develop a mature and intelligent approach to games which includes monitoring any online presence and building their resilience to being manipulated is no different to the mentoring you most likely already provide for their face to face friends and social situations. Computers, games, VR etc aren’t going away and they aren’t the problem. I’m unsure why, in the technological age that we live in, you would want to deprive your children of those experiences and developing those skills.

My son loves it.I was resistant at first but it has been brilliant in encouraging his creativity and its also been a conduit to new friendships through it being a shared interest with school friends but also through x box live.

Very creative game. As with all things – govern how they use games and you will have less potential for issues.

The advice above that I agree with the most is avoid Youtube and that Stampy fellow.
Nothing untoward about his videos only his voice will grate on you after about 2.5seconds.
The game it self is very creative (especially in creative mode funnily enough). It us amazing what your kids can think of and create.
The hardest part is trying to get a go myself 🙂

When you get back from forcing kids on a death march here’s some reading for you from other worried parents.

Minecraft Woes

Nothing untoward about his videos only his voice will grate on you after about 2.5seconds.

Helooooo! 😡

I do find it a bit weird that the proposed solution for preventing kids from socialising online is to not let them, so they can healthily sit indoors on their own instead. How’s that work exactly? Do you make them play outside in the rain with a stick and an orange or something, whilst you go and find some gnarly trails on your penny-farthing?

The iPad version of Minecraft is pretty poor. It is a game that really needs a proper controller.

Gaming is now a part of growing up for many kids

As it was when I was a kid. Although Minecraft is infintely more worthwhile than Ikari Warriors or Lotus Turbo Esprit.

I’m trying it on a Raspberry pi, getting jnr to work on trying to do stuff in Python

Very restricted time though

Way of the Exploding Fist took up some of my time at a mates house.

Your kids have the rest of their lives to be staring at screens, postpone it as long as you can.

Ay?

Your kids have the rest of their lives to be staring at screens, postpone it as long as you can.

Why? Something wrong with staring at screens?

Banning fun stuff is not the way to parent. It’s your job to give them other fun stuff that they also want to do, so they can go mtbing or whatever YOU value, then come home and play minecraft. Sounds like a perfect day to me 🙂

Once upon a time, I am sure there was a cabal of parents who thought these new fangled books things were killing the art of traditional story telling.

There are newspaper articles from the 1850 lamenting the fact that so many families were reading periodicals (who’s stock in trade was instalment novels written by Thackeray and Dickens) the art of conversation was dead.