Fast, entertaining content seems to be the only way to hold the attention span of today’s children and teens. This becomes an issue when virality becomes more important than the content being put out or the audience who will receive it. TikTok users have realized that they can quickly create a viral video by taking Reddit stories and resharing them over clips from popular video games like Minecraft, Roblox, and Subway Surfers. Today’s article covers why this content is dangerous and how you can keep your child safe from digital injury with ourScreen Safety Toolkit.
The Popularity of Minecraft, Roblox, and Subway Surfers
Minecraft
Between 2016 and 2021, Minecraft users have risen from 40 million to 93 million with a peak of 131 million users in 2020.[1] Surveys have found that up to 54% of boys and 46% of girls aged 3 to 12 play Minecraft.[2] The popularity of Minecraft is undeniable. Take a look down any aisle of children’s clothing and you will find item after item filled with popular references from the game. Covid-19 only increased the popularity of the online game accessible on most gaming consoles, with users increasing by 14 million from 2020 to 2021.[2]
Roblox
Roblox is another popular children’s game that has bankrolled off the pandemic and increased in users over the past few years. Between 2021 and 2020, the platform added more than 146 million users to its servers. In 2016, Roblox had 30+ million users. Today they have more than 202 million monthly active users.[3]
While the average user of Minecraft is 24 years old, only 14% of Roblox users are over 25 years old. 67% of Roblox users are under 16 years old, and 54.86% of users are under 13 years old.[3] The popularity of Roblox is reflected on TikTok through a large number of Roblox fan accounts owned by young users. In fact, there have been many audio trends on the platform that are accredited to edits by Roblox users.
Subway Surfers
While less popular than Minecraft and Roblox, Subway Surfers is still the most downloaded and most-played mobile game in the app store. Between 2021 and 2022, Subway Surfers saw more than 2 times the number of downloads with 5.43 million daily users.[4] These numbers are impressive, as, unlike Minecraft and Roblox, Subway Surfers is only available for download on mobile smartphones. It is not available on any other gaming platform. While there is no available data for the average age of Subway Surfer players, the game is recommended for ages 9 and up.
All three of these games are different in their gameplay but similar in their popularity and appeal to younger audiences. Videos made with clips from these games are sure to catch the attention of a younger audience who is trying to view content related to their interests.
Harmful Reddit Content and How They Use Kids’ Games
Reddit claims on its website to be “a network of communities where people can dive into their interests, hobbies, and passions.”[5] Users post on so-called “subreddits” dedicated to topics from the general to much more specific niches.
Today there are over 2.8 million subreddits and Reddit has 52 million users daily.[6] Of their monthly users, 79% are between the ages of 18 to 34 and almost 64% of those users are men.[7] When children encounter posts from Reddit, they are viewing material often made for and by adult men, leading to some very inappropriate content.
A simple search for “Reddit stories” on TikTok will show you video after video of Reddit threads overlaid with a video of someone playing a kid’s game and read by a voiceover. The threads contain content from various subreddits like “/AmITheAsshole” but most contain inappropriate “NSFW” (Not Safe for Work) content. A scroll down the search shows video after video of content with titles like, “My mom keeps having sex with my boyfriend…” or “What do you tell your partner when you’re horny?” or “What did you not know about sex until you lost your virginity?” The last question is from a Subway Surfers video with 1.6 million likes and 13.5 million views from a user with similar content and over 55.4 thousand followers.
The creators of these videos use the popularity of these kids’ games to bring more viewers to their content and help their virality. In doing so, they are promoting sex, adult situations, and overall unsafe content. Each of these videos is followed up by hundreds or thousands of comments from young kids and teens adding their own answers to the question proposed. A quick look at commenters’ profiles revealed that half were between the ages of 13 to 17, and each was commenting on their own sexual experiences to millions of viewers.
Set up content preferences and block out video keywords or put the account on restricted mode in the settings and privacy section of TikTok.
View an account’s watch and comment history and see what content your child is consuming and interacting with.
For younger children, consider waiting before allowing them to have their own TikTok account.
When they do adopt a TikTok account, scroll together to choose what content they view and influence the algorithm that will offer content automatically.
As your child gets older, work with them to establish what they are doing and looking at on social media. Preparing them for the possibility of adult content can help them in discovering it on their own and possibly suffering a digital injury.
If you fear your child may be watching inappropriate Reddit content without your knowledge and permission, check out our GKISScreen Safety Toolkit. This toolkit helps to empower parents and provides them with smart tech tools to filter, monitor, and manage online behavior.
To protect your child, prevent digital injury, and prepare them for social media use check out our GKIS Social Media Readiness Course.
Thanks to CSUCI intern, Katherine Carroll for researching how TikTok users use Reddit content and kids’ games for views.
I’m the mom psychologist who will help you GetKidsInternetSafe.
Like movies, video games have contributed to a massive and diverse industry. The video game market place Steam has over thirty-thousand games available for sale and only 47% of developers sell their games using steam. This article will teach you what you need to know about the diversity in the gaming market, the games that came out of home projects, and what you need to know for you young gamers. Here at GKIS we care about the internet safety of your young gamers and we want to protect them from digital injuries. Check out the GKIS Social Media Readiness Course to prepare your tweens and teens for the dangers they will face while playing games and interacting on social media.
What is an indie game?
A video game can be classified into one of two groups based on who produced the game, AAA games and Indie games. AAAgames are produced by a major company that can back the game’s production with money, personnel, and any other resources the production may need. Indie games are produced by either a small team or a single developer with minimal resources at their disposal. An indie game developer is typically a single person with a good idea and access to game developing software.
A video game is a large time investment for any developer. Large game developers have teams of experts who each work on the pieces of the game resulting in a short production time. Indie developers, on the other hand, typically have minimal resources. They often crowd-fund projects and make sacrifices to release games in a reasonable amount of time. Indie developers tend to rely on social media for brand awareness and marketing.
Well Known Indie Games
Indie games may start out as small passion projects, but well-made games can gain popularity and become just as popular as AAA games. When an Indie game becomes popular enough, AAA publishers may buy the game from the original developer. This allows the publisher to put their formidable resources behind the project and then reap the rewards of the new and improved game. Here at GKIS, we put the formidable resource of Dr. Bennett’s years of knowledge and experience as a licensed clinical psychologist to work to create the Screen Safety Essentials Course. The Screen Safety Essentials Course provides parents and children with access to a comprehensive program that will help families to create safer screen-home environments and foster open communication.
Here are some Indie games you may recognize:
Minecraft
Minecraft is an incredibly popular Indie title, having sold over 200 million copies to date, and was sold to Microsoft the company behind the Xbox game console in 2014. Microsoft has since updated Minecraft with new content, released two more games under the Minecraft title, and expanded the game into other profitable areas such as toys.
Undertale
Undertale is a game that was crowd-funded and released in 2015 with an estimated 5.8 million users. Created by a single developer, this game has reached a level of acclaim that Nintendo licensed one of the characters to appear in one of their own games. The game also has its own line of merchandise and a much-anticipated sequel currently in development.
Among Us
Among Us is a more recent success story of a small social deception game that rocketed into the public eye, and boasted 60 million active users a day at the peak of its popularity. The game was very popular amongst YouTube and Twitch creators, which acted as a very successful marketing campaign. The game has become so popular that, during Halloween, kids were running around in inflatable costumes of the Among Us space suits.
The Benefits of Indie Games
Without a big corporation behind them forcing big decisions, indie developers can make any game they want. For example, Cup Head is an extremely difficult game with an art style designed to be an homage to the early era of hand-drawn cartoons. Some games are designed off of a single weird concept or a specific labor of love based upon an obscure passion.
Most indie developers try to get the funding they need to produce a game using crowd-funding. Crowd-funding is when a designer puts out a concept of a project online and gets funding from the potential fanbase to make the game through a mixture of donations, pre-purchasing the game before development begins, and additional benefits for backers of the game. Benefits can include anything from your name in the credits of the game as a backer to having input into a part of the game or a character in the game being named for the backer. Crowd-funding allows a developer to pool money for a passion project from people who are excited about the game. Crowd-funding success helps to attract investors because it reflects customer interest.
The Dangers of Indie Games
Indie games have been a source of some of the greatest titles of the last two decades, but that doesn’t mean that every Indie game is going to be like Minecraft. Indie games can be whatever the creator wants, and that’s not always a good thing. For example, some developers push the boundary of horror games and explore themes AAA horror would never touch. For example, The Binding of Isaac is one of the most popular Indie games of all time. The game explores themes of child abuse, religious extremism, and child suicide.
Indie games can explore any theme no matter how dark or twisted and the limit to what can be made is limited only by human imagination. That doesn’t mean all Indie games are horror games. But the range of themes available is significantly more diverse than the AAA scene for games.
What does this mean for your young gamers?
Within the gaming industry, Indie games are incredibly diverse. The diversity of genres and topics can create games that range from poorly made first attempts to truly frightening horror games and all the way to amazing successes like Minecraft.
So, what can you do for your young gamers online?
Read the summary.
If your child wants to get an Indie game it will often come from a website that allows developers to post and sell their games. There is a store page on Steam associated with a game that will give you a description of the plot, gameplay, pictures of the game, and reviews from people who have played the game. This will allow you to make an informed decision if this game is right for your child.
Our family course is designed to bring your family closer and get your kids working with you to stay safe on the internet. Our connected family course is outcome-based and will help you close screen risk gaps and increase family closeness and cooperation.
YouTube
You can often find YouTube creators that have recorded gameplay of popular new Indie games. If your child wants to play the new game their favorite YouTuber is playing, watch one of their videos with them. It’ll show you what kind of game your child is looking at, and you’ll get to hang out with your kid while you do it.
Thanks to CSUCI intern, Jason T. Stewart for researching advances in the video game industry and co-authoring this article.
I’m the mom psychologist who will help you GetKidsInternetSafe.
Coble, V. (2021, September 30). 10 most disturbing psychological horror indie games. CBR. Retrieved November 20, 2021, from https://www.cbr.com/indie-games-disturbing-psychological-horror/.
Curry, D. (2021, November 11). Among us revenue and usage statistics (2021). Business of Apps. Retrieved December 4, 2021, from https://www.businessofapps.com/data/among-us-statistics/.
Curry, D. (2021, November 11). Minecraft revenue and Usage Statistics (2021). Business of Apps. Retrieved December 4, 2021, from https://www.businessofapps.com/data/minecraft-statistics/.
Donnellan, J. (2021, June 8). 50 best indie games of all time. Cultured Vultures. Retrieved November 20, 2021, from https://culturedvultures.com/best-indie-games-all-time/.
G., D. (2021, November 1). 45+ video games industry statistics, facts, and trends for 2021. TechJury. Retrieved December 4, 2021, from https://techjury.net/blog/video-games-industry-statistics/.
Lowry, B. (2017, November 29). This is what sets ‘indie’ and ‘AAA’ video games apart. Windows Central. Retrieved November 20, 2021, from https://www.windowscentral.com/indie-vs-aaa-which-type-game-you.
Mikolić, M. (n.d.). Undertale stats by Playtracker Insight. stats by Playtracker Insight. Retrieved December 4, 2021, from https://playtracker.net/insight/game/1122.
Oddo, M. V. (2021, August 2). What’s an indie game anyway? Collider. Retrieved November 20, 2021, from https://collider.com/what-makes-an-indie-game/.
Video games have come a long way since Pong was first released in the 1970’s. Advances in gaming technology can enhance the experience for adults, but for children more realistic games are harder to distinguish from reality. At GKIS, our Social Media Readiness Course is designed to prepare your tweens and teens for the unexpected dangers of video games and social media sites. Our course is backed by Dr. Bennett’s years of experience helping tweens and teens who have already suffered digital injury from the unforeseen dangers found online. In this GKIS article we will cover the evolution of graphics and the steps gaming companies take to make games seem more real.
Video games Are Evolving
Video games are based in technology, and since players got their hands on Pong there has been a push to
advance that technology. Originally, video games were played using bulky arcade cabinets. The first home consoles were very restricted by their hardware. Games were flat and involved a character moving around the screen like a piece on a board. This all changed with the introduction of 3D graphics in the early 2000s. For the first time, video games had physical depth and the characters on screen moved more like a real person would.
Video games are striving every year to create a more realistic virtual environment. Games now have wind that moves individual leaves on tree branches, light that dances across the surface of the water, and characters that look real from a distance. Modern video games have advanced technology to foster a sense of extreme realism and maximize immersion. With such engaging digital experiences, it is important that children are provided with boundaries so as to prevent screen-time overload and digital injury. Our Screen Safety Essentials Course grants you access to weekly videos with parenting tips and coaching from Dr. Bennett that will help you pull your child out of their digital world and back into ours.
Motion Capture
It can be difficult to program a character to move in a realistic way. The awkward way early 3D characters moved unfortunately hampered immersion. Recently, the gaming industry began to use motion capture technology to solve this issue. Motion capture is a technique whereby a real human being is recorded in a studio as a program captures their motion and applies it to the game character to make the movement look as real as possible.
In a game called LA Noir, you are a 1940’s detective. One of the major objectives of the game is to interrogate suspects and solve crimes. For authenticity, developers created the characters with real facial expressions. The game used an advanced motion capture system to record the real facial expressions of the voice actors portraying the game characters. Players can tell what a character is feeling or if they’re lying based on facial expressions alone. The game uses very real human empathy and natural social cues as a part of the game, offering deeper immersion and better quality overall.
Real Game with Real Fear
Realistic graphics are fascinating when they’re used to make a character blink and breathe like a real person. Immersion is the goal, especially in horror games. Early horror games were limited in what they could create by the consoles of the time. However, as modern technology has evolved, new possibilities have opened for the horror genre.
Games can include motion-captured characters with realistic looks of fear and pain on their face. Horror games originally wanted to compete with the horror movie industry, but horror games now have the ability to do more than movies ever could.
For example, a game called Dead Space takes the classic zombie movie genre and sets it in a futuristic space station. An alien artifact mutates humans into nearly unkillable monsters. The game makes great use of body horror to drive home the alien nature of these dead humans. Body horror is a type of horror derived from twisting the human body into unnatural shapes creating nightmarish monsters. Our mind still sees that the monster is technically human, but is terrified by how wrong it has become. For example, in Dead Space, the zombie you are tasked to fight is a human with an open chest cavity and arms twisted in unnatural positions with sharpened bone where hands used to be. The key feature is that they still have a human face attached to the monstrous form to remind you that they used to be like you.
Immersion in horror games
The main thing horror games have over movies is the personal nature of the narrative and fear within. A zombie movie may be scary to watch as your favorite character fights for their life. However, an immersive game like Dead Space can make you feel like you’re the one fighting for your life. The immersive narrative attempts to draw you into the character’s shoes and, for the time you play, you can believe that you’re really in danger. The narrative takes on a whole new depth as suddenly you’re the one backed into a corner with only a handful of ammo and your wits.
Another dimension is that a game doesn’t guarantee a happy ending. When you run out of ammo, you know that you’re the one who’s going to die. Often when a gamer talks about an experience with a horror game, they speak in the first person. When I first played Dead Space, I remember the adrenaline rush I got when I had no ammo, because I knew I was going to have to fight my way out with my bare hands. The memory of playing a game differs from a movie because it stores itself as if the player had physically been there.
What does immersion mean for kids?
Realistic video games can be frightening and exciting to play. But at the end of the day, a player can still distinguish the game from reality. The same can’t be said for children exposed to the same things. Children have a harder time separating fantasy from reality.
As video games strive to be as close to reality as possible the task only gets harder. An adult who plays a particularly realistic horror game may have trouble sleeping for a night, but a child will suffer far worse than any adult.
Even outside of horror, we have shooter games that strive for realistic blood and death. Sniper Elite is a game that will follow the bullet fired from a sniper rifle through an enemy to show bones break and organs rupture as the bullet penetrates their body. These advances in immersion are great for taking a player into the world of a game, but only as long as that player has developed enough to pull themselves back out.
What can you do for your young gamer?
ESRB Ratings
Most video games come with an ESRB rating on the box to let players and parents know what type of audience the game is suitable for. If a game is rated for an audience older than your child, the game contains content inappropriate for their age group.
Our Connected Family Course is designed to help keep your family connected in a world separated by screens. Backed by years of psychological research our course is designed to keep your family connected and working together to prevent digital injury.
Play games with your kids
Make sure the game your child is playing is appropriate and get some fun bonding time in. You can learn what the game your kids are playing is really like by just spending time with them while they play. If a game is inappropriate, it’ll be hard to hide for long.
Thanks to CSUCI intern, Jason T. Stewart for researching advances in the video game industry and co-authoring this article.
I’m the mom psychologist who will help you GetKidsInternetSafe.
Walker, C. (2010, December 22). Video games and realism. Wake Forest News. Retrieved November 3, 2021, from https://news.wfu.edu/2010/12/22/video-games-and-realism/.
Among Us is an app/video game that has seen a rising fan base since its release. It is popular with gamers of all ages. Its cutesy characters and simple gameplay make it appealing to even the youngest children. To get your home set up for cooperation and screen safety, check out Dr. Bennett’s Screen Safety Essentials Course which features weekly parent and family coaching videos in addition to several other valuable resources for promoting family connectedness and preventing digital injury! In today’s GKIS Sensible Guide, you will be learning all the information you need to make an informed decision on if this game is appropriate for your child.
How long has Among Us been around, and how popular is it?
Among Us was released by a small development company called InnerSloth LLC in June 2018. According to Steam, the number of users began to rise when COVID lockdowns started. This peaked around October 2020 with an average number of 170,000 players.[1] It should be noted that this does not include players on Apple or Android devices. The true player count is likely much higher.
Among Us is available for purchase on Steam for under $5. On mobile devices, Among Us is a free download. However, users on mobile devices will be shown ads between games and will have their data collected. To stop this, the user is allowed to purchase an ad-free version of the app. This prevents any ads from playing and their data from being collected by the app.
Getting Started on Among Us
To play Among Us, the player must confirm their age is over 13. This is done with a simple birthdate selection and can be easily bypassed by children younger than 13. Among Us can be downloaded on Steam, along with the Apple app store and the Google Play store.
Before letting your child play Among Us or games like it, we recommend the Connected Family Course to help inform you and your child about the dangers of screen use. It also provides a large number of tips to help your child stay safe online.
Features of Among Us
Basic Gameplay
During the game, groups of 4 to 10 play together. One to three of those players are selected as the imposters, the rest of the players are crewmates.
Crewmates will have a certain number of tasks to complete as a group around the map. These tasks are usually simply mini-games such as connecting wires or swiping a keycard. This group wins when either all of the imposters have been eliminated through voting, or all of the tasks are completed.
Imposters have a much simpler task. They want to eliminate the crewmembers until the number of imposters is equal to the number of crewmembers. If this happens the imposters win. Imposters have extra abilities such as using vents to teleport around the map. Imposters always know who the other imposters are.
When a dead body is reported or the emergency button is pressed a meeting is called. During this meeting, all players discuss who they think the imposters are. This discussion may be over a text chat or a voice chat. At the end of the meeting, they have the option to vote off a player. They may skip voting if they aren’t confident. Once a player is voted off, it is revealed if they were a crewmember or an imposter.
Cosmetics
A various number of cosmetics are available for direct purchase for Among Us. They can range in price from one dollar to up to five dollars. While not a loot box, some people do worry that microtransactions like this can lead your child to develop a gambling addiction. For more information on this, please visit our article on gambling in gaming.
Benefits of Among Us
There are numerous benefits of playing Among Us. It is a fun way for friends to interact or to meet new friends online. Its simple gameplay allows for everyone to enjoy it, not just dedicated gamers. Plus, the game is easily accessible because it’s extremely inexpensive or even free. Finally, it teaches players to detect deception from other people. This can be considered a good life skill.
Risks of Among Us
There are a few big risks that come with children playing Among Us. The first is that it does expose the child to violence. While it is cartoon-like, there are some graphic deaths including stabbing, snapping necks, and eating heads off. It also teaches children to lie. To be a successful imposter, one has to lie and plant deception in the crewmates’ heads. This might lead the child to lie in other aspects of their life, particularly younger children. Another risk for anyone playing the game is they may be exposed to cyberbullying by others. Other players may be muted to prevent this, but it is still a risk of playing an online game. Another big risk is talking and interacting with strangers. Though it hasn’t been reported, predators could potentially use Among Us to find victims and groom them into talking outside of the game or offline.
Due to the risk potential for child players, GKIS rates Among Us as a yellow-light app due to the cartoon violence and potential exposure to cyberbullying. This means that children under the age of 13 are not recommended to play this game.
If your child wants to play Among Us, GKIS recommends that you:
Add it to your free GKIS Connected Family Agreement (Available if you enter your email on our GKIS home page.)
Discuss the risks of chatting with strangers with your child. For tips and advice on how to do this, check out our Connected Family Course.
Consider joining our Screen Safety Essentials Course to gain access to weekly parenting and family coaching videos that provide information, extra support, and exclusive tips for helping your child stay internet safe.
Thanks to CSUCI intern Dakota Byrne for researching Among Us and co-authoring this article.
I’m the mom psychologist who will help you GetKidsInternetSafe.
Onward to More Awesome Parenting,
Tracy S. Bennett, Ph.D.
Mom, Clinical Psychologist, CSUCI Adjunct Faculty
Discord is an app that allows groups of people to communicate with each other at any time. It has branded itself as being a messaging app built for gamers. If you would like to teach your gamer the brain hacks and marketing ploys built into games, check out our GKIS Screen Safety Essentials Course. This program offers powerful teaching tools through weekly coaching videos designed for parents and the entire family. The Screen Safety Essentials Course encompasses a variety of valuable resources for keeping families informed about the various pitfalls of the digital world in addition to providing tools for fostering open communication and family connectedness.
How long has Discord been around, and how popular is it?
Discord was launched in May of 2015 by Jason Citron and Stanislav Vishnevskiy. In 2020, Discord earned $130 million, with over 100 million active monthly users. Most of the revenue comes from a service called Nitro, which allows users to pay for upgrades to their servers. About 850 million messages are sent every day on Discord.[1]
Getting Started with Discord
Discord requires users to be over the age of 13 before they are allowed to create an account. This is a simple birthdate check and can be easily faked by children under the age of 13. Discord can be downloaded on the App or Google Play stores on mobile or by going to the Discord website and installing the application on a computer. Discord can also be used on any internet browser.
Before letting your child use any sort of messaging app, we recommend our Connected Family Course to help teach your child about the potential dangers of the internet and how to avoid falling victim to them.
Features of Discord
Basics
When a new user opens Discord, they won’t have a lot of options. To get connected with peers, Discord servers have a link that can be sent out that works as an invite. When an individual clicks that link, Discord will open, and they will be prompted to join the server.
In each server, there can be multiple text and voice channels. These different channels can be used to keep larger servers on topic. For example, creating a specific voice channel for gaming is a common occurrence.
Users often have screen names instead of their actual names displayed. This can make it hard to keep track of who you are talking to, especially if other users change their display names frequently.
Nitro
Discord allows users to ‘boost’ a server with Nitro. This gives various benefits to the server and its members, including higher quality audio chat, exclusive and customizable emojis, and higher quality video sharing.
This costs a user $9.99 a month to boost a server. Servers may be boosted by multiple users for improved benefits.
Private Servers vs Public servers
Private servers require users to be approved by a moderator or be given a password to access the server.
Public servers are joinable by anyone.
Many game companies, such as Sims, Call of Duty, Among Us, and Fortnite have public Discord servers for their fans to join.
Private Chats
Discord allows users to individually message others based on their privacy settings. Explicit content can be filtered out at the user’s discretion.
Messages from complete strangers can be prevented completely by changing one’s privacy settings.
Controversies
During its relatively short lifespan, Discord has found itself at the center of several different controversies. Most recently and famously, it was discovered that several members of the 2021 Washington D.C. occupation used Discord to discuss and organize the Capitol Hill incident. Their server was subsequently deleted.[2]
In addition, numerous Discord servers are solely dedicated to the sharing of various types of pornography. Those servers are often easy to find and join, with little age verification required. So long as the user’s account says they are over 18, they are able to join these servers with no issue.
Benefits of Discord
Discord allows individuals to communicate with their friends easily. Discord does not inherently cost anything, so it is appealing to those with a limited budget. It helps the individual feel connected to their friends and gives them a place to chat how and when they desire. If you like a certain game, joining a public discord to talk with similar-minded people can be exciting and fun. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of servers dedicated to discussing video games, movies, books, or even mythology. Discord provides a broad range of groups.
Discord also offers features to protect privacy. Specifically, it provides settings to prevent instances of bullying, spam, or harassment from strangers. Users just need to know to turn them on.
Risks of Discord
Discord presents some apparent risks. The anonymity of users allows for cyberbullying to be very easy to get away with. Children are often targeted by older members of gaming communities. Users may block other users once they feel threatened, but this does little to prevent cyberbullying from happening. It simply prevents it from happening again.
In addition, the ease of access to pornographic content is a big issue. If a child wanted to look up pornography but didn’t want it to show up on their internet history, Discord can provide it discretely. If you are worried about what websites your child is visiting, consider browsing our article on red-light websites.
GKIS rates Discord as a red-light app. This means that children under the age of 18 are not recommended to use this app. We came to this conclusion based almost solely on the ease of access to explicit content. Perhaps with careful parent supervision, it could be considered a yellow-light app. So long as parents are able to monitor what servers their children are in and who they are talking to, Discord has no more risk than texting or Facebook messaging. GKIS encourages parents to talk to their children and make an informed decision on whether or not Discord is appropriate. For help choosing and programming parental controls and management programs, our Screen Safety Toolkit is a comprehensive research guide with GKIS recommendations and special offers and discounts.
Thanks to CSUCI intern Dakota Byrne for researching Among Us and co-authoring this article.
I’m the mom psychologist who will help you GetKidsInternetSafe.
Gaming has been a popular topic for GetKidsInternetSafe because it is the favorite past time for many children. We have covered a variety of gaming topics which include the brain traps of gaming, violent video games, professional gaming, and even if we should gamify education. Games have developed so much in the past 25 years and the graphics, concepts, and design continue to improve. One of the big concerns about children’s gaming is addiction and distraction from academics. When done right though, gaming can be a valuable supplement for well-rounded education.
What is Intelligence
Intelligence is a highly debated term because traditionally it involved biased measures of cognitive ability. However, over fifty years of scientific research has demonstrated that intelligence cannot fit as neatly into a box.
American psychologist Robert Sternberg suggested the Triarchic Theory which states that there are three types of intelligence: analytical, creative, and practical. Taking it a step further, developmental psychologist Howard Gardner proposed that there are eight different types of intelligence: linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, naturalist, interpersonal, and intrapersonal.[1]
The most widely used intelligence theory in Western culture, is centered around skills in math, memory, verbal comprehension, and visual-spatial reasoning.[2] Simply put, theories of intelligence center on one’s ability to eclectically conceptualize and utilize information.
Games That Surprisingly Affect Intelligence
Most games require specialty skills for success. Popular games can be incredibly complex and require high intelligence to engage successfully. Adults don’t typically consider that playing Overwatch, Roblox, or Minecraft is a learning opportunity. As a player myself, I disagree. In my experience, it is evident that my fellow players excel at things like reaction time, creativity, and spatial awareness.
When I was in my mid-teens, I was an avid gamer. I played many games, but Minecraft was my favorite. What peaked my interest were the parallels with real life and the possibilities for creation were endless. Knowledge needed for the game helped me in real life by enriching my vocabulary, excelling my reaction time, and nurturing my creativity. My spatial awareness was also boosted due to understanding the means of measurement in Minecraft (each block was a square meter). Using those as reference, I had a better gist of measurement in comparison to my 6-meter-tall character. I even began to conceptualize fundamentals of construction and physics when I would set up mob traps to capitalize off the loot they dropped.
After my Minecraft phase, I moved onto Lumosity and my eyes opened to how impactful games could be. Lumosity is an educational gaming app that has minigames specially designed to challenge a variety of our cognitive abilities.
Many great new app developers seek to make fun educational games. Edutainment is refers to media designed to educate and entertain.[3] Many edutainment activities are developed by education specialists and cognitive scientists. Commonly targeted abilities are in the area of executive functioning, working memory, self-control, and mental flexibility.
A study by Jocelyn Parong and colleagues from the University of California, Santa Barbara researched the effects of games on cognition. They put students in two groups. The first group played Alien Game for four hours. The second group played an updated version of the game called All You Can ET. After the two groups played, an improvement in mental flexibility was found.[4] Their findings replicated those of a previous study that also studied cognition and gaming.
Further, a 2016 study by Viviane Kovess-Masfety and colleagues analyzed data from over 3,000 children. Upon gathering information from the children’s teachers on how they were in the classroom, Kovess-Masfety and colleagues found that children categorized as “high use” gamers had slightly higher reported intellectual functioning. Most of the high-use gamers reported approximately seven to ten hours of gaming per week.[5]
GKIS-Recommended Intelligence Games
Games that are designed specifically to improve intelligence are still relatively new. Research has been mixed but shows promising results for improvement. Gaming can be a practical approach to keep ones intelligence sharp and have fun! Here are some intelligence games GKIS recommends as promising:
Lumosity
Lumosity is a popular “brain training” app for mobile devices and computers that provide entertaining mini games that focus on an individual skill. The free version selects three mini-games for you to play from their bank of over 40 mini-games. With the premium version, you get access to in-depth statistics and can choose among all their available games.
Lumosity games may help with skills ranging from attention, memory, problem-solving, subitizing, language, and mental flexibility. This is great for tweens and teens.
Words with Friends
Words with Friends is a fun puzzle game—similar to Scrabble—that can expand your vocabulary and think creatively. You can play alone, challenge game bots, or play with friends.
Khan Academy Kids
Khan Academy Kids is a free educational game geared towards children. There is an assortment of games that help with language, reading, math, attention, memory, and problem-solving. An added benefit of these games is that they also help with emotional development, motor functions, and creativity.
Kiddopia
Kiddopia is an app focused on teaching kids a variety of skills and general knowledge. Kiddopia games are incredibly diverse, including school topics like learning numbers, basic arithmetic, language, and problem-solving. This app also has entertaining games that cover geography, human anatomy, animal care, and even careers!
[1]Shearer, C. B. (2020). A resting state functional connectivity analysis of human intelligence: Broad theoretical and practical implications for multiple intelligences theory. Psychology & Neuroscience, 13(2), 127–148. https://doi-org.summit.csuci.edu/10.1037/pne0000200.supp
[4]Parong, J., Wells, A., & Mayer, R. E. (2020). Replicated evidence towards a cognitive theory of game-based training. Journal of Educational Psychology, 112(5), 922–937. https://doi-org.summit.csuci.edu/10.1037/edu0000413
[5]Kovess-Masfety, V., Keyes, K., Hamilton, A., Hanson, G., Bitfoi, A., Golitz, D., Koç, C., Kuijpers, R., Lesinskiene, S., Mihova, Z., Otten, R., Fermanian, C., & Pez, O. (2016). Is time spent playing video games associated with mental health, cognitive and social skills in young children? Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology: The International Journal for Research in Social and Genetic Epidemiology and Mental Health Services, 51(3), 349–357. https://doi-org.summit.csuci.edu/10.1007/s00127-016-1179-6
Thanks to CSUCI intern, Katherine Carroll for researching how TikTok users use Reddit content and kids’ games for views.
