Every night around bedtime, millions of children enter a silent battle between biology and technology. On one side: the brain’s need for restful sleep. On the other side: a screen designed to keep them awake. Parents are aware of how important sleep is but may fail to realize how much screens affect their children on a nightly basis. 98% of American homes with children 7 years old and above have at least one screen.[1] That one screen may be standing in the way of your child’s best self.
Sleep: The Hero
Sleep is as essential as food and water. Food fuels the body, and sleep restores it. Sleep supports healthy brain functions. This includes forming and maintaining critical brain pathways for learning, creating new memories, building stronger concentration, and developing faster response times.
For your child to be at their best, they need about 9.5 hours of sleep each night. This reset is also necessary for proper maintenance of the the brain, heart, lungs, metabolism, immune function, mood, energy, and disease resistance.[2] Without a consistent good night’s rest, the mind and body will not have the chance to clear out toxins that may lead to illnesses.
When sleep is disrupted, the mind and body start to malfunction. The CDC reports that about 31% of adolescents aged 13-17 years old sleep less than the recommended amount for their age group. That number jumps to 40% for children 4 months to 17 years old. This means that one-third of school-aged children are missing out on one of the biggest necessities for overall good health.
Chronic or poor quality of sleep can also lead to an increased risk of injuries, obesity, type 2 diabetes, poor mental health, attention and behavior problems, and poor cognitive development.[3] These long-term issues can affect the quality of their life well past childhood.
Screens: The Enemy
Before bedtime, screens begin their battle against sleep by using their blue light to suppress melatonin release. Their weapon: stimulation of the brain with arousing content that keeps it alert. This causes children to delay their bedtimes, begging for “5 more minutes,” which can result in bad sleeping habits.
Melatonin is a hormone in our brains that manages our sleep-wake cycle.[4] Blue light or blue wavelengths naturally occur in the daytime and are beneficial for attention, reaction times, and mood. But at night, they are disruptive to a good night’s rest.
While any kind of light can suppress the release of melatonin, blue light is the most powerful at disrupting sleep.[5] Delays in bedtime can lead kids to have shorter fuses, act out, or just leave them too tired to do their best.
For school-aged children, over a decade’s worth of reviewed studies support that screen exposure is correlated with delayed bedtimes and a shortened duration of sleep. Screen time includes watching television, computer use, playing video games, and using mobile devices.
Passive television viewing was associated with negative sleep outcomes in 76% of those studies, whereas computer usage showed a significant adverse association in 94% of those studies.[6] That’s not all. According to teachers in America, 88% report that their experience with students’ learning challenges heightened as their screen time usage increased, and 80% believe their students’ behaviors worsened with added screen time.[7]
While the effects of screen time on sleep can feel overwhelming, the good news is that parents are not powerless in this battle. In fact, small, consistent changes at home can dramatically improve a child’s sleep quality and overall well-being.
Your 5-Step Battle Plan
Awareness: Knowledge is power. Properly prepare everyone in the family with our Screen Safety Essentials Course. Our course teaches you everything you need to know to set up your home and rules safely and build a fun, cooperative alliance with your kids.
Priorities: For the tools to streamline safety, check out our supercharged informational course, the Screen Safety Toolkit. With your tools in place, you can incorporate critical habits, like physical activity, into your family’s daily routine to promote better sleep. Try not to include exercise too close to bedtime, though, as your body must have time to unwind properly.
Consistency: Our brains and bodies respond best to habit. For ongoing success, you must choose and implement a consistent sleep schedule. This means that going to sleep and waking up as close to the same time as possible, every day of the week.
Strategy: Be mindful of what you eat and drink, especially before bed. Try not to eat within 1-3 hours of bedtime, and be mindful of food and beverages that include caffeine or too much sugar, as this can cause sleep disturbances.[8]
Intention: Make sure the bedroom is cool, dark, and quiet. Turn off all screens at least 30-60 minutes before bed so that blue light is minimized for at least 30-60 minutes.[9]
Keep In Mind
Change does not happen overnight. Some steps will lead to fast results; others may take some time. Just remember, consistency is key. Staying informed and trying your best will be your greatest weapon in the battle against screens.
And if you have tweens and teens in your family, it’s time for them to take accountability for safe habits as well. Our Social Media Readiness Course is like driver’s training, but for the internet!
Thanks to CSUCI intern, Elaha Qudratulla, for researching and writing this article.
I’m the mom psychologist who will help you GetKidsInternetSafe.
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.
More than 164 million Americans play video games with computers, smartphones, mobile devices, and gaming consoles.[4] Gamers aren’t just kids. About 21 percent of gamers in the United States are over the age of 50.[4] With a wide variety of exciting choices and easy accessibility, gaming is a common pastime. With increasing rates of digital injuries, psychologist and GKIS founder Dr. Tracy Bennett saw the need to educate tweens and teens about social media in a fun and engaging way. To help, she created the GKIS Social Media Readiness Course. She also created the GKIS Screen Safety Toolkit for parents to be able to filter, monitor, and manage their kid’s screen activity. Today’s GKIS article discusses grey matter differences found in video gamers.
The Risks of Video Gaming
Excessive use of violent video games can be harmful. Dr. Tracy Bennett’s book Screen Time in the Mean Time: A Parenting Guide to Get Kids and Teens Internet Safe, suggests young children should be allowed the opportunity to socialize in real-life school and groups first before allowing age-appropriate video games, smartphones, and social media.[8]
Video game ratings are also important to follow. Children have immature nervous systems. Exposure to violent video games has been demonstrated in psychology research to increase violence, decrease prosocial behaviors, and be over-stimulating – leading to tantrums, anxiety, and defiance.[8] Playing violent or sexualized video games can also spark child curiosity for other unsafe online activities.
improvements in visual-spatial capabilities, reaction times, attention span, the ability to process multiple target objects, and detail orientation
improved visual short-term memory, mental rotation, tracking, and toggling between tasks
helping with anxiety, relaxation, and mood
improving problem-solving, strategy building, goal setting, and cooperation with others
vocational applicability and can be customized for specific tasks, such as orienting and motivating employees, providing health care benefits like exercise or illness care, and teaching specialized skills like performing surgery or sporting ability
competition in profitable e-sport tournaments
and opportunity for increased confidence, social connection and networking, and self-esteem, especially for players isolated by geographic remoteness or physical or mental disability.[8]
Video Gaming Impact on Brain Structure
Some video gamers also demonstrate changes in brain function and structure. In a 2011 study conducted at Charité University of Medicine, researchers examined the brain volume of 14-year-old video gamers using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).[1] fMRI’s measure the small changes in blood flow that occur with brain activity.[9] fMRI’s are used to examine a brain’s functional anatomy, for example when determining which brain areas are handling critical functions.[9]
Grey matter refers to the brain tissue that makes up 40% of the brain and plays a significant role in normal human functioning.[5] Grey matter helps us retain memories, control movements, process rewards, and regulate emotions, among other functions.[5]
In the 2011 study, researchers found that frequent video game players had a larger volume of grey matter than infrequent video game players.[1] The higher grey matter volume in the ventral striatum area may have helped subjects with faster decision-making and higher brain activity during a rewarding task.[1]
The researchers cautioned that this doesn’t mean video games necessarily increase grey matter. Instead, larger grey matter volume may lead to more video gaming. For example, video gamers with higher grey matter volumes may experience gaming as more rewarding. The reward from play may make learning a habit, skill, or quality easier, leading to even more rewards from playing video games.[1] Notably, other studies by Chinese and Australian researchers have also found that gamers have more grey matter and better brain connectivity.[3]
These research study conclusions appear to be consistent with what is described as neuroplasticity (the ability of the brain to change or adapt over time by creating new neurons and building new networks).[6] Consistently, other studies have found that some games can improve the health of senior players diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.[4]
What Parents Can Do
With ever-evolving video game platforms, psychologist Dr. Tracy Bennett has seen the devastating effects of digital injuries on children and their families firsthand. To help prevent digital injury, she created several online courseslike the GKIS Screen Safety Toolkitfor parents of kids of all ages, the GKIS Connected Family Course for parents with children of elementary school age, and the GKIS Social Media Readiness Training for tweens and teens.
She also offers private personal Coachingand Workshopsto parents who have more questions or looking for additional help tailored for their unique child.
Thanks to CSUCI intern Janette Jimenez for researching Grey Matter Differences Found Among Video Gamers
I’m the mom psychologist who will help you GetKidsInternetSafe.
[1]Kühn, S., Romanowski, A., Schilling, C., Lorenz, R., Mörsen, C., Seiferth, N., Banaschewski, T., Barbot, A., Barker, G. J., Büchel, C., Conrod, P. J., Dalley, J. W., Flor, H., Garavan, H., Ittermann, B., Mann, K., Martinot, J-L., Paus, T., Rietschel, M., & Smolka, M. N. (2011). The neural basis of video gaming. Translational Psychiatry. 1(11), 53–53. https://doi.org/10.1038/tp.2011.53
Has your child ever had an epic freakout because you demanded that they turn off their screen? Or completely went unhinged when you wouldn’t buy them a video game they wanted or allowed social media before you thought they were ready? It turns out that there is a neurological reason for that reaction beyond child entitlement and fragility. Too much screen time can result in overstimulation that results in short- and long-term effects in kids. To help manage your child’s screen time and avoid overstimulation, check out ourScreen Safety Essentials Course. This course will help your family achieve screen sanity with our weekly parenting and family coaching videos featuring research-based tools from Dr. Tracy Bennett. In this article, we discuss sensory overload, how it may be affecting your children, and how to avoid it.
Our Digital Babysitter
Raising kids is hard! And some kids are more difficult to entertain than others. Screen time can be a win-win – kids are happy, and parents can get things done. Dr. Bennett, Founder of GetKidsInternetSafe, says screen time can be a great thing, but it can also be a source for a host of digital injury. In her book Screen Time in the Mean Time, she describes screen injuries in the areas of health, interpersonal exploitation, and financial exploitation.[4]
She says that, although screen time matters, content matters too. Educational content with a calm, predictable, and sequential pace is easier for children to process than frenetic, fast-paced content. If your child melts down when you tell them to turn off screen time, you may need to be more aware of the content they are watching so they don’t suffer from sensory overload.
What is sensory overload?
Sensory overload refers to overstimulation that occurs when sensations from the environment, like playing video games or watching fast-paced videos and television programming, can become overwhelming.[2] For young children with maturing brains and difficulty with emotional modulation, sensory overload from unmanaged screen time can result in irritability, temper outbursts, hyperactivity, and aggression. Children with disabilities, like autistic spectrum disorder or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, are particularly vulnerable to sensory overload.[4]
What does frenetic, fast-paced content look like?
In 2006, YouTube launched the child educational program CoComelon. By September 2022, CoComelon had 144 million subscribers and over 139.24 billion views.[5] The demand and popularity of the CoComelon led to the creation of the TV show in 2021, which also became a hit sensation. CoComelon consistently ranks in the top ten most popular shows on Netflix.
CoComelon is known for its fast pace and bright animation. These aspects of the program are hypothesized to stimulate the release of the feel-good chemical, dopamine, in kids’ brains.[1] Dopamine also plays a key role in addiction. This rush of dopamine that kids experience while watching the show is what makes them want to watch it repeatedly.[3] Some exposure is likely harmless. However, some kids may have a vulnerability to such fast-paced content. Too much watching can lead to problems.
Passive television while doing homework can result in sensory overload.
Frenetic screen content isn’t the only thing that can lead to problems with sensory overload. In her book, Screen Time in the Mean Time,Dr. Bennett writes that passive television can also strain child cognitive resources.
Passive television refers to the television playing in the background while we’re eating dinner, doing homework, or just for pleasure. Having the television on in the background while your kids do homework creates a battleground for your child’s attention. This can negatively affect their quality of learning and academic performance.
Dr. Tracy Bennett writes:
Watching TV and doing homework are both demanding tasks that compete for visual and verbal cognitive processing. As a result, the toggling required to attend to both tasks will impair learning and homework quality. Research studies have demonstrated that watching television, or even just having it on in the background, impairs reading performance, recall and recognition, and even your memory of what you’ve watched on TV.[4]
Entertainment and big tech havecommodified your child’s attention.
Because entertainment corporations recognize that their profit depends on our screentime, they’ve created manipulative technology to capture our attention. With features like autoplay, companies like Netflix, YouTube, and TikTok know how to keep us binge-watching. The autoplay feature automatically dishes up new content without user input to promote addictive watching habits. With features like autoplay, can you be confident that Netflix is prioritizing your child’s learning and mental health over its profit?
Signs That Your Child May be Suffering from Sensory Overload
Chronic moodiness and irritability
Fatigue and low energy
Difficulty making decisions
Temper outbursts, especially after a long screen time binge
Aggression
Headaches, including ocular headaches and migraines
Difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep
Nightmares[6]
How can you help your child avoid sensory overload?
Take initiative and manage what your children are able to access with help from ourScreen Safety Toolkit.
Set up sensible household rules (like screen-free zones) and amazing learning centers with help from our Connected Family Course.
Help your children learn how to recognize the red flags of digital injury and practice psychological wellness tools before they adopt social media with our Social Media Readiness Course.
Opt for the works with our megacourse the Screen Safety Essentials Course. This low-cost option offers all GKIS Courses and Agreements in one easy place. Parents-only videos and family videos from Dr. B offer 26 easy lessons that you can sprinkle in once a week to make sure you cover everything!
Share Dr. B’s important teachings by telling your school, church, or temple about her custom webinars!
If you need extra support, check out our GKIS Workshops and Dr. B’s Coaching options!
Thanks to CSUCI intern, Sarah Hernandez for researching and writing about sensory overload from screen time.
I’m the mom psychologist who will help you GetKidsInternetSafe.
Virtual reality (VR) has become increasingly popular in the gaming community. VR allows consumers to experience new environments and activities that push the boundaries of creativity and possibility. Although VR offers excitement, studies have shown that the extended use of VR can lead to an uncomfortable mental health symptom called dissociation. Find out about VR-induced dissociation and the pros and cons of VR in today’s GKIS article. If you are worried about your kids’ extended use of VR gaming, our GKIS Screen Safety Essentials for the family offers weekly videos and downloads so you can achieve a peaceful fun home with healthy screen time. With 26 quick, fun lessons, our Essentials Course offers tons of ideas to keep you connected and safe. Keep reading to learn how to maintain your kids’ safety while giving them access to virtual fun.
What is virtual reality?
Virtual reality is gaming technology that simulates real or fantasy worlds that the players can immerse themselves into for a variety of activities. Immersion into the 3D VR world is possible by stimulating many senses all at once like vision, hearing, and touching.[1]
The Pros and Cons of VR Use
Pros
It’s fun and therapeutic!
VR can be really fun and exciting. It can serve as a mental break or escape from day-to-day routines and is a great way to connect with friends and meet new people with similar interests.
Access to new worlds and experiences can also be beneficial for those suffering from physical disabilities because they can experience activities that they cannot in the real world.
People with neurodevelopmental disabilities, like autism, can also benefit from VR. For example, an individual may use VR to learn how to better socialize in an environment where mistakes won’t lead to risks like in the real world. For example, as a behavioral intervention that works to help kids with autism, one of my patients has a goal of learning how to cross the street. Practicing in real life can be nerve-wracking and even dangerous due to the possibility of being hit by a car if my patient runs into the street from overstimulation. By practicing VR, he can eliminate risk as he learns to master this new skill.[2,3]
Work Training
VR also has potential benefits in the professional world as a safe way for training in many fields of work. For example, during the COVID19 pandemic, health care workers could interact with patients in VR without being exposed to the virus. VR has also allowed students and professionals to perfect skills and procedures before risking with real patients, like practicing a surgical technique for example.[4]
Cons
Feelings of Withdrawal and Disappointment with the Real World
For some people, what goes up must come down. Many players report feelings of sadness after play and a growing disappointment with real-life experiences. Tobias Schneider, a user of VR described feeling detached from the real world because it lacks the ‘magic’ and excitement VR has to offer. As an oculus user (a VR gaming system) myself, I recently went to their online forum and found that many users reported these feelings.[5]
Dissociation
Studies and forums have shown that VR has the potential risk of dissociation such as derealization and depersonalization. Derealization is this mental state where a person will feel so detached from their surroundings including people and objects, that the world will feel unreal. Depersonalization is this feeling that you are floating outside yourself. These types of dissociation occur for a variety of reasons, most typical in response to panic attacks and generalized anxiety. Theorists have described these symptoms as a defense that our bodies mobilize to protect us from stress. Other conditions that can cause dissociation include sensory deprivation, trauma, seizure disorders, dementia, and the use of hallucinogens or marijuana. Some people are even genetically prone to demonstrating this psychological symptom. Once a person dissociates once, they are more likely to dissociate again.
Although most people who dissociate describe it as a passing feeling, once one dissociates once they are more likely to do it again. For a minority of people, dissociation can occur often out of the blue in a condition called Depersonalization/Derealization Disorder.
A 2006 study examined the effects of VR use and found that for some players, episodes of dissociation increase after VR use. Even a gamer developer describes a time when they had to touch things around their surroundings after finishing a VR demo just to erase any lingering skepticism from her brain. If you look at the oculus forum, you will read many users complaining that their hands don’t feel like their own even after taking off the VR headset.[6,7,8,9]
Tips To Avoid the Negative Effects Of VR
Read your VR system’s instruction manual and safety warnings.
Start off with baby steps and play at a comfortable level that is not overwhelming.
Take frequent breaks when using VR.
When To Seek Professional Help
Having feelings of depersonalization or derealization that occasionally pass is common and should not necessarily cause alarm. But if these feelings of depersonalization or derealization become persistent and severe, this can be a sign of a physical or mental health disorder. You should seek immediate help from a doctor if these feelings are:
disturbing you or becoming disruptive to your emotional well-being,
become persistent and seem to never go away or improve, or
interfere with personal relationships, work, or other daily activities.
GKIS Resources That Can Help You Build Healthy Relationships with The VR World
Want a peaceful, fun home with healthy screen time, but don’t want to spend on something that won’t work for? Check out our GKIS Screen Safety Essentials Course. We have a free two-week trial so you can determine if it’s the right resource for you before you spend a penny. Plus, it includes videos and downloads from all GKIS parent courses that are designed for weekly viewing, making the material digestible and easy.
If you are not sure your child is ready to experience the online world check out our GKIS Social Media Readiness training. This self-paced course will get your kids ready for VR or anything in the online world. It includes mastery quizzes after each lesson to ensure they are prepared for online fun while maintaining safety. Guaranteed to make happy teens and relieved parents.
Digital injury is real, and many users run to forums when trying to understand the negative feelings they experience from the overuse of technology. With our GKIS Online Safety Red Flags For Parents, parents will learn which behavioral red flags to look out for that may signal that their kid is suffering from digital injury.
Virtual reality is a hot topic. You can also check out our other GKIS articles to learn more about the benefits and risks VR has to offer:
Thanks to CSUCI intern Ashley Salazar for researching and co-authoring this article. Prevent digital injury after VR use and check out our GKIS resources. They will help you launch a fun screen-safety dialogue. If you or a loved one is suffering from severe and persistent dissociation, please contact your health insurance provider and see a doctor.
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/.
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Thanks to CSUCI intern, Katherine Carroll for researching how TikTok users use Reddit content and kids’ games for views.
