How do you like to use the internet? To watch videos of puppies and kittens? Or posting pictures of your family and friends? Maybe to satisfy your shopping addiction on Amazon? Maybe your internet use has not been so innocent. Many use the internet to get a thrill or get their anger out. Online harassment is not uncommon, so much so that there are websites built to support it. Kiwi Farms, for example, is a forum website where users are encouraged to harass online personalities and communities. Today’s GKIS article details the targeted harassment done by Kiwi Farms users and how the website facilitates this behavior. If you’re concerned your kids may be victimized by harassment or overstep and do the harassing themselves, check out our Screen Safety Toolkit. With this online course and resource guide, you can learn how to protect your family online.
The Start of Kiwi Farms
Joshua Conner Moon, a former administrator of the 8chan message board, started Kiwi Farms in 2013. It was first established as a forum website to troll and harass a webcomic creator. Before the term “Kiwi Farms” was coined in 2014, Kiwi Farms was known as “CWCki Forums.”
Organized Harassment
The Kiwi Farms website targets a wide range of victims, including Internet celebrities, minorities, women, neurodivergent individuals, LGBTQ people, members of the far right, and people who Kiwi Farms users believe to be “mentally ill” or “sexually deviant.” Both Moon and the Kiwi Farms user base have been labeled as anti-Semitic.[1]
swatting (reporting crimes at their addresses to have police dispatched to their homes)
real-life attacks
People Who Have Fallen Victim
U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene claimed in an interview with NewsMax on August 24, 2022 that she had been swatted twice by someone posing as a Kiwi Farms moderator “AltisticRight.” She urged for the website to be taken down. In reaction, Cloudflare shut off a feature on the website that lets users modify error messages.
Clara Sorrenti, a transgender advocate and Twitch broadcaster who goes by the handle “Keffals,” was doxxed on Kiwi Farms as well. Users of the website shared both her personal information and those of her friends and relatives, including addresses and phone numbers. Users also threatened her life and leaked sexually explicit images of her. In August 2022, after someone hijacked her identity and sent false emails to local lawmakers threatening widespread violence, she was later swatted, imprisoned for more than ten hours, and arrested. She was ultimately exonerated of all charges, and authorities determined that the incident was a swatting effort.
Users also shared the address of a stranger who lives in the same city and has the same last name as Sorrenti. Police were subsequently dispatched to his home. Sorrenti claimed that she left her house and checked into a hotel for her protection following the swatting event. After she uploaded a picture of her cat lying on a hotel bed, Kiwi Farms members recognized the establishment from the bedsheets and sent several pizza orders to it using her dead name.
Later, Sorrenti left the country after her whereabouts were discovered, allegedly by someone who had hacked her Uber account. Sorrenti says that she intends to file a lawsuit and that the occurrences were being investigated as criminal harassment.
Suicide
A hate campaign against transgender game creator Chloe Sagal was started in 2013 by Kiwi Farm users. Sagal is well-known for creating the well-liked, independent horror game Homesick. After Sagal started raising funds for gender reassignment surgery, they began to attack her. Users hounded and harassed Sagal for years after they started a post specifically to target her. Sagal lit herself on fire in 2018 in a park in Portland and died at 31 years old.[3]
According to images of chat boards and videos published by DropKiwiFarms.net, an initiative was passed to shut down the website after Moon posted a live YouTube video celebrating Sagal’s passing while other Kiwi Farms users laughed and made fun of the game developer.
The Short End of Kiwi Farms
After the harassment effort by users of Kiwi Farms against Sorrenti, a movement to persuade Cloudflare to stop hosting the site was launched in August 2022. Cloudflare is a company that provides hosting and online security services. This, according to NBC News, was done to allow Kiwi Farms to be the target of “debilitating virtual attacks.”[2]
Although Cloudflare first defended its choice to continue working with Kiwi Farms, the company formally banned the website from utilizing its services on September 3, 2022. However, on September 6, VanwaTech supplied content delivery network services to the website, returning it online according to The Daily Dot.[4]
How to Protect Your Child
Unfortunately, many parts of the internet are unregulated. And when children have easy access to it, they can fall victim to being harassed online or fall down a dark path of harassing people themselves. Luckily, Dr. Bennett can help you protect yourself and your family from online harassment.
One helpful tip for parents is to make it a habit to hold GKIS Family Meetings with a teaching agenda that covers important online issues that your children will face. This provides opportunities for mutual education and skill building, and it also builds a close family alliance. Get ideas for your discussion with our GKIS Blog and learn parenting strategies with Dr. Bennett’s Screen Time in the Mean Time Parenting Guide.
Thanks to CSUCI intern, Liliana Esquivel, for detailing the targeted harassment done by Kiwi Farms users and how the website facilitates this behavior.
I’m the mom psychologist who will help you GetKidsInternetSafe.
Even with parental oversight, children are often exposed to harmful and dangerous ideas on the internet. It’s too easy for an online influencer to gain a large platform to spread radical ideas and infect highly impressionable kids. Andrew Tate, a person who skyrocketed to internet fame in 2022, is one of these influencers. Tate is well-known for creating violent and sexist online content and has amassed billions of views. Children have unprecedented, unfiltered access to this information everywhere, particularly on social media platforms. But with Dr. Bennett’s Social Media Readiness Course, you can help your tween or teen learn to navigate social media more safely. Even one view is too many. Check out our Social Media Readiness Course today. Today’s GKIS article describes the wildly popular platform of Andrew Tate and details the risks that may be posed to your child online – and how to avoid them!
Who is Andrew Tate?
Andrew Tate is a hugely popular American-British social media personality who gives men and young boys dating, financial, and life advice. He was a four-time world champion kickboxer that appeared on the TV show Big Brother in 2016. This was short-lived as Tate was fired from the show due to a video that surfaced on the internet of him beating a woman with a belt.
Tate then founded a website called Hustler’s University where he offers online courses about how to make money from online business. You also get access to his private Discord server, where there is more information about making money through crypto, E-commerce, and stocks. Various reviews about Hustler’s University allege much of the information being sold can be found on other websites for free. Many people have also described it as a multi-level marketing scam.
Tate claims his financial success is from his webcam business and crypto. However, the ethics of how he gained his wealth is questionable. In April 2022, Tate and his brother Tristan were raided by the Romanian police due to a tip from the US embassy that a young American woman was being held hostage in their home in Romania. Authorities have stated that there is an ongoing investigation into human trafficking and rape allegations.
His Meteoric Rise (and Downfall) to Internet Fame
It is almost impossible to be on social media without seeing a clip of Andrew Tate voicing his controversial opinions. He started gaining popularity during the early summer of 2022. His popularity skyrocketed on various social media platforms such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Twitter. He has appeared on multiple popular podcasts and Twitch streams. He also has his own YouTube channel called Tate Speech.
Involuntary Celibates
The statements Tate has shared on social media follow the ideology of the involuntary celibate (incel) movement, an online subculture of self-identified involuntarily celibate men who express hateful attitudes towards other men who are successful with women and hold misogynistic beliefs. In the article, Could Your Son be an Incel in the Making?, we deep dive into the incel movement and explain how to protect your children from online hate groups.
In a clip discussing the #MeToo movement, Tate said, “If you put yourself in a position to be r***d, you must bear some responsibility.” In another viral TikTok video, he says, “It’s bang out the machete, boom in her face, and grip her by the neck. Shut up bitch” if a woman were to accuse him of cheating. He has gained 4.3 million Instagram followers with many of these videos reaching billions of views.
Rightfully so, Tate’s rhetoric has sparked enormous public outcry. Yet many people post support for his outrageous statements. Unfortunately, even bad attention is good attention on social media. Too often the loudest and most controversial influencers attract the biggest followings. Many social media platforms such as Tiktok, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube banned him.
Potential Risks Children May Face
Sadly, kids don’t have the cognitive skills or experience to successfully maneuver through the complex moral dilemmas posed on social media. Sometimes they emulate influencers because they see that it attracts attention. Teachers have been sharing their experiences of hearing young students repeating things Andrew Tate has said to other students and are alarmed about his influence.
Potential risks children may face when exposed to inappropriate online hate speech include:
a sense of inferiority and shame
hateful attitudes and beliefs about women that can have long-term impacts on the ability to develop healthy relationships
low self-esteem
desensitization to immoral ideas
exposure to scammers and those intending to exploit kids
mental health problems
Here’s What You Can Do
Andrew Tate is not the first and won’t be the last to spread dangerous rhetoric on the internet. Get equipped with the proper tools to help you and your children stay safe while surfing the wild web. Check out our most comprehensive parent and family course, our Screen Safety Essentials Course. This course provides you with parenting and family coaching videos, support, and other valuable information to help you build a safer screen home environment.
Thanks to CSUCI intern, Liliana Esquivel, for discussing the popular platform of Andrew Tate and detailing the risks that may be posed to children online.
I’m the mom psychologist who will help you GetKidsInternetSafe.
Scams can cause extreme financial and emotional distress to victims and their families. With technology, scammers have become more creative in accessing their victims by offering quick clicks and false credibility. Even young teens that navigate effortlessly online have a hard time distinguishing legitimate situations from scams. To help you and your family avoid becoming the victims of a scammer, I interviewed “William”* who shared his mother’s story. She was an educated professional that fell victim to multiple scams over five years. You won’t want to miss the true story about what happened to her. If your family hasn’t taken steps for increased awareness and cybersecurity, you’ll want to check out our Cybersecurity & Red Flags supplement. The perfect compliment to our free Connected Family Agreement, you can take the extra steps you need to protect your loved ones right now. Our guide offers tips to avoid hacking, scamming, malware, and phishing and is a must-have for today’s modern family. Today’s GKIS article shares the story of an elderly woman victimized by scammers, the types of scams to look out for, and tips on how to avoid becoming a victim yourself.[1]
*Names were changed to protect the privacy of the victims.
What are scams?
A scam is a dishonest scheme to cheat someone or steal money. With the help of technology, scammers have been able to target their victims in more creative, easier, and faster ways than ever before. According to an FBI report, 2020 scams resulted in a loss of over 4.2 billion dollars. With more baby boomers retiring and the pandemic resulting in more at-hone isolation, I suspect those losses rose in the last few years.[1,2]
Who Scammers Target
Although anyone can become a scam victim, research has shown that scammers tend to target kids, teens, and the elderly. A study conducted by the University of Iowa confirmed that a certain area of the prefrontal cortex of the brain is responsible for processing information and solving problems – tasks that help people consider whether information is true or not. Young people tend to be vulnerable to scams because this part of the brain is still developing, and older individuals are vulnerable when they demonstrate poor technological fluency, are isolated, or suffer from a decline in problem solving ability.[3]
The Story of William and His Mom
William is a middle-aged man who generously shared his story with us about his elderly mother, Mrs. Thorn, who was scammed out of tens of thousands of dollars over a five-year period. Despite his best efforts to protect and rescue her from the scammers, he struggled to keep her safe. Once one scammer got ahold of her and convinced her to send money, many other scammers started approaching her too. William suspects that the scams were somehow linked as if they shared her information with others. Below are some of the scams she fell victim to.
Different Types of Scams
Charity Scams
William described his mother as a generous individual. She was a nurse in Japan during the 1950s, and, after she retired, she continued helping others by volunteering at church and other organizations. As she got older, she would receive postcards in the mail from different charities, a common scam targeted at elders. Although her income from social security and savings was not a lot, she began “donating” money to those she perceived as less fortunate than herself.
Piecing together what happened with his mom’s checking and bank documents, William found that she initially sent small amounts of money ranging from $5-10. Once the scammers had her on the hook, however, they would groom her for larger and larger “charitable” donations.[4]
Lottery/Sweepstakes Scams
Another scam that William’s mother fell victim to was the lottery/sweepstakes scam, which also commonly targets elders. These types of scams claim that the victim has won a large amount of money or other prizes such as a new car. Once the victim is excited and eager to collect their prize, scammers require that they pay a fee or taxes. As the scammer reaches out with details, the victim often adopts an illusion of intimacy, meaning they feel they have a personal, caring relationship with the scammer. This false intimacy pulls the victim in deeper, often eliciting more and more personal information from the victim.
William confirmed that Mrs. Thorn spoke to the scammers about his efforts to block their access and protect her safety. Mrs. Thorn’s scammers not only instructed her not to tell anyone because it could be a nice surprise for her family, but they also offered specific suggestions on how to work around the safeguards her son put in place. They seemed to play on her wishes for independence and worked to create and escalate conflict between her and her son.
Our GKIS Connected Family Course can help you close screen risk gaps and improve family cooperation and closeness. If you have school-age children at home or love somebody who does, check it out. Not only does the course offer amazing safety home setup tips, but it helps parents create fun dialogues for better, healthier parent-child relationships.[4]
Government Impersonation Scams
William noticed that some of the scams his mom was involved with may be linked with others. For instance, to pay the taxes of her “prize,” the scammer would set Mrs. Thorn up to talk to an “IRS agent.” These types of scams are known as government impersonation scams which are types of very popular imposter scams. According to the FBI, government impersonation scams typically involve the scammer impersonating a government official who threatens to arrest or prosecute victims unless they pay a fee. William shared that they even tried to trick him with false threats of prosecution and arrest unless he agreed to cooperate.
Dr. Bennett shared that immigrants can easily be targeted with this type of scam as well. She shared a story of a colleague who was a Chinese immigrant who worked as a software engineer. This victim’s scammer posed as a member of the Chinese government and threatened the safety of her family if she didn’t pay overdue fines. The scammer demanded that she not tell her friends and family and immediately pay. She lost over $150,000 that was never recovered before she realized she’d been scammed.[4]
Phone Scams
William explains that although his mother’s scams initially started by mail, they soon turned into phone calls. He allowed me access to his mother’s journal which included notes on the people she spoke to and what they had asked her to do. Her notes reveal that she would talk to the same people over and over and eventually trusted them more than her own family and friends. The scammers were very persuasive and would instruct her how to wire funds to unfamiliar places and people, even going so far as giving her directions to wiring locations that her son had not blocked yet. William spent countless hours visiting banks, local wiring locations, and friends begging them to not help his mom transfer money or provide transportation. Although he spoke to his mom many times, he found that the scammers would get to her anyway with relentless pressure and creative arguments.
Scammers have no limits.
It was not until William caught his mom almost wire transferring $200,000 that he finally got the information he needed to gain conservatorship over Mrs. Thorn. By then, the scammers had even instructed her to how to send money from q reverse mortgage loan on her home to complete the transaction!
William said the scammers had no shame and would even help her find ways to continue participating in the scams even after he took steps to stop them. He shared that they would pressure her with false deadlines and threats, making her so anxious that she would rush into performing workaround instructions. Her journal reflects moments of intense anxiety as she tried to complete the complex transactions.
To emphasize how far scammers would go, he shared that, after he lowered his mom’s allowance to $25 a week and there was not much to get from her anymore, they still tried one last thing – the 976 phone scam. According to William, this is a scam where you call back a number with an area code of 976 and get charged a huge per-minute fee. The longer the scammer keeps the victim on the phone confused and anxious, the more money the scammer gets.
Avoid Being Next
William shared that his mom was scammed out of about $70,000 before it stopped. If it was not for her son’s compassionate and tireless commitment to protect her, it could have been far more. Other popular scams include shopping scams and job opportunity scams. If you are worried that bad actors can access your family members, check out our Screen Safety Toolkit. Our resource guide is perfect for those that need smart tech tools for filtering, monitoring, and management.
Tips to Outsmart the Scammers
Contact your phone carrier and internet service provider to research helpful tools for blocking unwanted and unknown calls, texts, and emails.
Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Don’t act immediately, take a moment to research the situation and talk to someone who you trust.
Don’t give out personal information like your name, date of birth, social security number, address, or usernames or passwords. Legitimate organizations will not text, call, or email you to obtain private information.
Don’t complete forms from an email link. Instead, go directly to the website of the company you are dealing with and complete the business from there.
Call the company directly to confirm the request was legitimate before you offer information or complete forms. The IRS communicates through US mail, not by telephone or email. Call 800-366-4484 to report IRS-related phishing attempts and fraud.
Be sure to keep up with device updates for security patches, delete unused and unwanted apps, and change your passwords frequently.
Review your credit card statements regularly to catch unauthorized charges and periodically review your credit report.
Consider freezing your social security number for new financial transactions with Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion to escape identity theft.
Lastly, Google “scams” or a quote from any communication that may be a scam to learn more about the common scams that may target you.
Scams are no joke. Once you become a victim, serious damage can occur that can take years and years to repair. Check out our other GKIS article Child Identity Theft is on the Rise. Protect Your Family Against Cybercrime, to learn more about how fraudulent purchases made with your private information can change your life
Here are some other related articles offered on our GKIS website for more information on hacking, scamming, malware, and phishing. Learn more about the dangers of online to be prepared for anything that comes your way.
Virtual reality (VR) software has become increasingly popular among young tech consumers. Users of the latest VR headset technology love to explore vast digital worlds and interact with other users. While there are many creative and exciting possibilities for this technology, intensive oversight is needed to ensure the safety of our kids in this brave new world of virtual reality. Unfortunately, recent reports have come forth detailing disturbing issues of sexual impropriety and exploitation of minors across virtual reality domains. It is important for parents to be aware of the possible risks of VR so that kids can be better protected while exploring its fun and creative applications. It’s also important for tweens and teens to be aware. That is why we created the Social Media Readiness Course. This course was designed to prepare kids and teens for the inherent risks of social media in order to prevent digital injuries and promote responsibility
What is the Metaverse?
The term metaverse appears to be one of those recent buzzwords that seemingly everyone has heard of yet understands very little about. People wonder if it’s a game, a new type of internet, or a singular virtual reality space inhabited by everyone who has a VR headset. As it exists right now, the metaverse refers to apps that use virtual reality technology. For example, someone can download a Jurassic-themed VR app that allows them to use their VR headsets to engage in a virtual space inhabited by dinosaurs. Or someone could download a different VR app that allows the user to virtually explore a museum. Although they are completely separate from one another, the virtual spaces provided by the two different apps collectively comprise the metaverse.
Kids may access adult-themed virtual domains.
The VR industry profits billions of dollars per year which has resulted in an enormous amount of VR apps being developed for consumer use. The expansion rate for app development is too fast for there to be comprehensive oversight of all the apps that children have access to download. This means that it is relatively easy for kids to download a VR app that may look innocent but end up being completely inappropriate for them. Additionally, some apps that should have stringent user-age restrictions simply don’t, allowing kids access to virtual strip clubs and other adult-themed spaces.
Children and Adults Mix
A researcher posing as a 13-year-old girl was given access to a virtual strip club while using a VR app that had a minimum user age agreement of 13. The researcher downloaded an app called VRChat which is characterized as an online virtual platform which users can navigate through as 3-D avatars. The app can be downloaded from an app store on Facebook’s Meta Quest VR headset, which only requires a Facebook account instead of an age verification. Inside of the app there are virtual rooms where users can meet and interact with one another. Some of these rooms are quite innocent such as popular fast-food restaurants whereas others are highly sexually explicit.
Upon entering the virtual strip club, the researcher was exposed to sex toys, condoms, and approached by adult male avatars who asked her to engage in erotic role play. The adult content is not restricted to a single room, rather it spans across multiple virtual rooms providing more points of access and exposure for young users. While pink flashing neon lights and booming music might signal sexual connotations to adults in the real world, to kids on a VR headset this might just look like an enticing feature of a fun video game.
Children using this app and others like it have reported being groomed by other users with adult avatars and forced to engage in virtual sex. The avatars on this app have the ability to get completely nude and simulate sex acts which may require the user wearing the headset to physically act out the motions themselves. The completely immersive nature of VR can make these experiences as traumatic and harmful as they would be in real life.
Parents Can Help
Parents can’t rely on tech companies and app developers to keep their children safe in a virtual reality space, especially with billions of dollars on the table. However, this doesn’t mean that kids should not be allowed to engage with this technology that also offers fun, creative, and educational experiences. Keep in mind that technology is like any other tool. The tool may be safe as long as it is being handled properly and wisely.
To optimize a safe and positive VR experience:
Research apps before allowing your kids to download them.
Take time to explore the virtual space yourself to sample what your kids will be seeing.
Periodically monitor the list of apps your kids have downloaded to ensure that no unapproved apps are being used.
Hold your children accountable to understand and guard against potential online risks that can lead to digital injury.
Check out our GKIS Social Media Readiness Course. Our course is a valuable tool that teaches tweens and teens about the inherent risks of social media and ways to be prepared when encountering them. We also cover critical psychological wellness tools to optimize mental health and overall satisfaction.
Verbally check in with your kids about what their experiences in the metaverse are like.
If you have school-age kids, you’ll want to check out Dr. B’s GKIS Connected Family Course which offers essential tips for fostering this kind of open communication.
Finally, remember to be kind, create an environment that allows for open dialogue between you and your kids, and rest assured that you have provided your family with the tools to facilitate safe and healthy internet practices. For ideas on what to talk about and to stay up to date on relevant internet/gaming topics, read our weekly free articles on the GKIS Blog by signing up for our free Connected Family Agreement.
Thanks to CSUCI intern, Mackenzie Morrow for researching some of the risks of virtual reality spaces for kids and co-authoring this article.
I’m the mom psychologist who will help you GetKidsInternetSafe.
In the fast-paced world that we live in, it can feel downright impossible to get the entire family together in the same room. Trying to find an activity that everyone can enjoy together is an even more improbable task. Yet, sharing experiences as a family and spending time together is necessary for creating close family bonds and maintaining a sense of connection. Today’s GKIS article covers the pros and cons of the PlayStation 4 and the PlayStation 5, recommendations for games to play as a family, suggestions for appropriate games that your kid can play alone, and some brief tips to keep your kids safe and connected when it comes to gaming.
Yesterday versus Today
In today’s digital landscape, there is a generational divide when it comes to what is fun. While you may reminisce on the fun you had playing Chutes and Ladders and Monopoly with your family when you were a child, your memories are probably being affected by that funhouse mirror known as nostalgia. Even if those games were fun when we were kids (I am not so sure they were), your children are used to a much more technically advanced world where entertainment comes in the form of video games, social media, and streaming services. Therefore, adaptation may be needed to have a successful family night where everyone has fun.
Here are some reasons why video games are a great way to connect with your kids:
Can be accessed at any time
Can fit into the most restrictive of work schedules
No need for planning
Do not have to worry about losing game pieces
Do not have to explain a complex set of rules
Most games are highly intuitive requiring little explanation
Creating family cohesion and safely navigating the technological world we live in can be difficult at times. Our Connected Family Course gives expert advice and strategies to create a connected home environment without having to disconnect from the internet.
What is the PlayStation?
The PlayStation is a series of video game systems created by Sony. For this article, the focus will be on the PlayStation 4 and the PlayStation 5, which are the current production models. The PlayStation 4 was released in 2013 and has sold over 114.9 million units worldwide, making it one of the most successful gaming consoles ever released.[1] The PlayStation 5 is the newest of Sony’s consoles, released in 2020, and is wildly popular and highly sought after. The PlayStation 5 has already sold over 10 million units and sells for a substantial mark up in the secondary market.[2]
The Pros and Cons of the Sony PlayStation
Pros
The biggest advantage of the PlayStation is that it is the most technologically advanced series of consoles on the market. Also, the PlayStation has a huge userbase so there will always be people to play with online. The PlayStation 4 and 5 are not solely game consoles. They have brilliant interfaces allowing the user to stream movies, television, and music from different apps, making them great choices for a one-stop entertainment hub.
Additionally, the PlayStation 5 is mostly backward compatible with the PlayStation 4. So, if you buy a game on the PlayStation 4 and later upgrade to the PlayStation 5, you can play most of your PlayStation 4 games on the new console. With a gigantic catalog of games, many of the games are family-friendly.
Cons
The PlayStation 5 is in such high demand that it is nearly impossible to get your hands on one. While you may be able to find some models of the PlayStation 4 for under $300, the retail price of the PlayStation 5 is close to $1000. But they sell for much more on the secondary market due to the high demand. Due to Covid, there is a huge supply shortage making these things harder to get than a Tickle Me Elmo back in the day.
Many parents don’t realize that kids can browse the internet through their PlayStation consoles. That means they can access anything or anybody through that browser. That means you MUST program parental controls if you don’t want your child exploring inappropriate online neighborhoods.
PlayStation Games to Play as a Family
With the PlayStation, there are a variety of interactive ways to connect with your family. You can play games together or use the console as a multimedia hub to stream a movie through your favorite streaming service.
Here are 4 fantastic PlayStation games for you and your kids to play together:
Just Dance 2021
Rock Band 4
Little Big Planet 3
Just Dance 2021
Just Dance is a motion-based rhythm game, which is a fancy way of saying that you dance to the beat of the music and try to perform choreographed moves. This game is a brilliant choice as it is a great way to exercise as a family. There are plenty of songs to choose from ranging from Lady Gaga to Billie Eilish. Each song has its own choreography and poses to learn as well.
This game has an ESRB rating of “E10,” meaning it has been approved for everyone ages 10 and up. The reason for the 10 and up age rating is that some of the songs have crude lyrics, though it is no worse than anything that they will hear on the radio. If you don’t want your children to hear these songs, there is a “kids mode” with songs that are more tailored for young children, like “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” from Toy Story 3.
This game is perfect for slumber parties and family reunions, as well as for any other occasions where you or your kids want to be active. We think this game is well designed, and the controls are intuitive making it a fun way to exercise and get your groove on.
Rock Band 4
Have you ever wanted to start a family band or be the Partridge Family? Rock Band is a game where you physically interact with video game controller versions of instruments. Up to 4 people can play at once, as there are drums, bass, guitar, and a microphone to choose from. The cool thing about this game is that it is very interactive and some of the skills learned from playing this game can be carried over to real-life when it comes to the drums and vocals. Like the previous game on the list, Rock Band 4 is also a great way to get some exercise in.
This game has an ESRB rating of T for Teen due to some of the song lyrics. Yet, like Just Dance 2021, there is nothing in this game that your kids won’t hear on the radio. Also, you can customize which songs come up in the playlist to avoid any songs that you find problematic.
Rock Band can be a great choice for parties and sleepovers as well. Kids can take turns on the different instruments and switch out after each song. It is also fun to be a spectator watching others play as well, so kids won’t get too frustrated waiting for their turn.
Little Big Planet 3
Little Big Planet 3 is an action platformer at its core. Up to 4 players can work together to take on each stage as an obnoxiously cute sack person. Browse “Little Big Planet images” to see what the cute little dude looks like. The game is massive and there are an immense number of levels to play through. On top of that, players can create their own levels and share them with other players. Having a huge creative community has made the replay value for this game limitless as players have created a ridiculous number of unique experiences.
Little Big Planet 3 has an ESRB rating of E, meaning it has been approved for children of all ages. This game also allows your children to utilize their creativity in a way that they will not get anywhere else. You and your kids can take the role of game creators and make your own levels and experiences to play, share, and show off to your friends and family.
PlayStation Games Your Kids Can Play Alone
Video games make great rewards for when your kid does something wonderful. There are an immense number of games to choose from. However, it can be overwhelming to find a game for your child that is age-appropriate. There are plenty of games out there that are excessively violent, have strong language, and have sexual situations in them.
Here is a list of 3 games that we recommend as rewards for your child:
Tearaway Unfolded
Rayman Legends
Ratchet & Clank
Tearaway Unfolded
Imagine this game scene, your face is the sun observing and interacting with a paper doll character. You explore vast paper environments and manipulate objects to solve puzzles to help your paper character throughout the adventure. This game design allows for a level of empathy and emotion rarely seen in video games, as the characters directly interact with you.
Tearaway Unfolded is rated E for everyone and has been deemed acceptable for all ages. There is little in this creative game that could offend or be seen in a negative light.
The most brilliant part of this game is the bonus stuff that allows the player to interact with the characters in the real world. There are templates that can be printed out and constructed so that your kid can have a physical version of his character to play with. The creativity and uniqueness involved in this experience of bringing the game characters to life and interacting with them offers a shared activity between you and your kid that is unlike any other and utterly priceless.
Rayman Legends
Here at GKIS, we think that the music levels in Rayman Legends are some of the most wonderful levels ever made in the history of video games. Rayman Legends is undoubtedly one of the greatest platformers ever made. The controls are extremely smooth, and the gameplay is spotless.
In this game, you play as the titular character and make your way through the many levels and challenges throughout the game. The game has a very playful art style and is very satisfying to play.
This game has an ESRB rating of E10 for everyone age 10 and up due to cartoon violence and comic mischief. The violence is very mild when compared to other games, and there is no blood or guts. For a single-player game, it has an incredible amount of replay value due to the vast number of things to do in its virtual world.
Ratchet & Clank
Ratchet & Clank is an action-adventure game where the main characters are a “lombax” and his robot companion. In the game Ratchet and Clank, the goal is to navigate the world with the fox/human hybrid character and the robot to find new weapons and gadgets that will help to save the universe.
Ratchet & Clank has been rated E10 (for everyone 10 and up) due to the violence against animated monsters. Yet, the weapons used in the game are ridiculous and outlandish. There is little chance that your kid is going to get their hands on a “groovinator” or a “sheepinator” in real life unless they’re future genius inventors.
How To Keep Your Kids Safe Playing Video Games
Research the games before buying them
Check the ESRB ratings
Play with your children or check in on them
Talk to your children and maintain a close family bond.
To stay in the know about how to keep your kids and teens safe online, check out our weekly parenting and family coaching videos provided through the Screen Safety Essentials Course. This comprehensive program will help families to become informed by providing you with the tools and expertise to keep your family connected and safe while engaging online.
Doctor B’s parenting guide, Screen Time in the Mean Time, is a wealth of knowledge about screen safety and keeping your kids safe from the numerous dangers inherent in the world we live in.
Thanks to CSUCI intern, Michael Watson for researching family-friendly games for the PlayStation 4 and 5.
I’m the mom psychologist who will help you GetKidsInternetSafe.
In 2019, YouTube was fined 170 million dollars for illegally advertising to kids. In this article, we’ll cover how YouTube broke the law designed to offer protection for children online, what they did to fix it, and the gap that still puts kids at risk.
To help protect your kids from inappropriate content on the internet, check out our Screen Safety Essential Course. This program offers access to weekly parent and family-oriented coaching videos that will help you to create safer screen home environments and foster open communication all while connecting and having fun as a family. Dr. Bennett’s coaching helps parents make more informed decisions about internet safety and educates families so they can use good judgment when encountering risks online.
What is COPPA?
The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) requires websites to get parent’s permission before collecting identifying data (like a kid’s name or address) or the cookies from the computer the child is using for children 13 and under. Cookies is a term for a type of data packet sent from a website to a computer and the computer returns the packet to the website. These data packets are a way for websites to track a user and record their actions on the site. Any company caught violating COPPA may be fined up to a maximum of $42,530 per violation.
COPPA applies to any website that is aimed at children or has an audience that can include children such as:
PBS Kids
Sesame Street
Nickelodeon
Cartoon Network
How did YouTube break the law?
In 2015 YouTube created a secondary website and app called YouTube Kids dedicated to content for children ages 12 and under. YouTube makes the bulk of their revenue by selling ads and gathering customer data. Customer data is valuable to marketers because it helps them better target advertisements. YouTube Kids gathered child customer data using cookies without parent permission. This was a violation of COPPA. As a result, YouTube received a fine of 170 million dollars.
YouTube marketed itself to advertisers on its popularity with children and made millions of dollars on the subsequent revenue. This led to a surge in kid-oriented content creators who made quick and easy-to-produce videos to capitalize on the profitability of these new advertisers. For example, toy unboxing videos became popular because it was an easy to produce video that generated a lot of views. These content creators are also violators of COPPA because they capitalized on YouTube’s violation for profit.
What has YouTube changed?
The good news is that YouTube no longer collects your children’s personal identifiers and will not allow advertisements that attempt to collect them either. YouTube along with the FTC have also cracked down on content creators who intentionally abused the ad revenue system by mass producing content while YouTube was still collecting kid’s data. Those channels were reported by YouTube, reviewed by the FTC, and channels found guilty were then fined for their own COPPA violation.
YouTube also has guidelines to limit what can be advertised to children. For example, YouTube does not allow advertising of any kind of food or beverage to children. YouTube has also added content filters that are meant to catch content that is oriented at kids and ensure that any advertisement that can collect your data can’t show up on those videos.
But kids are still viewing inappropriate content
The bad news is that the YouTube advertisement system isn’t perfect. YouTube may not be able to target advertisements at your child specifically anymore, but they can still target advertisements at children using videos marked as for children on their main site, or using their secondary site YouTube Kids. YouTube has extra guidelines for kid-oriented advertisements. However, YouTube does not regulate video content in the same way they regulate advertisements. For example, YouTube won’t allow a thirty second ad about Kool-Aid on their platform if it’s aimed at kids, but Kool-Aid can make a channel and post videos that are essentially an advertisement dressed up like an entertaining video for children. If you’d like to learn more about how advertising affects your children, GKIS already has an article detailing just that linked here.
What does this mean for your child on YouTube?
YouTube has put better practices into place after the COPPA fine. That doesn’t mean that their business model is any different. YouTube is still a website that makes the majority of its money off of advertisements. The website may not be collecting your child’s data but their attention is still a commodity being sold. Content on YouTube can be fun and even educational for children, but you have to be careful of what content your kids are watching.
What can you do to protect your kids on YouTube?
Check what your kids are watching
If you check in on what your child is watching every few videos then you can be sure that they haven’t slipped into watching advertisements dressed up as videos.
Familiarize yourself with your child’s favorite creators
Check a couple of their videos and make sure their content is something you want your child to watch. It will also allow you to be sure this content creator isn’t advertising anything to your children in their videos.
GKIS how to spot marketing supplement
Here at GKIS our how to spot marketing supplement will help teach your kids about the strategies marketers use, and will help them identify when a video is really an advertisement in disguise.
GKIS social media readiness course
Bennett’s social media readiness course helps to teach your kids how to be safe online and recognize the risks on social media sites and found in gaming.
Thanks to CSUCI intern, Jason T. Stewart for researching YouTube’s COPPA fine and co-authoring this article.
I’m the mom psychologist who will help you GetKidsInternetSafe.
