Gaming console for 9 yr old? And what rules?

April 4, 2018 3:49 AM

My nearly 9 yr old very bright kid is getting to an age when 40% of his class has some gaming console or another. I know nothing about them. Should I get him one? Do people have experience of which one has better parental control features? And once he has it, what are some good rules to make sure he continues to balance in his time between physical, chess, reading, homework etc. Thanks every one in advance
posted by london302 to Computers & Internet (22 answers total)

Both the PS4 and Xbox One have fairly good parental controls. I'd say that's a toss-up.

My 15-year-old son still has to abide by this rule: Monday through Thursday, no Xbox (unless it's vacation). Period.
posted by kuanes at 4:14 AM on April 4, 2018 [2 favorites]

I'd say a Nintendo Switch. More kid-focused/kid-appropriate games. Easy local multiplayer (it comes with 2 controllers by default) for if a friend is over. Portable so can be used separate from the TV if the TV is in use or if you're on a plane flight or something.

The online stuff is done differently to the other consoles in a way that's good for kid protection (but frustrating for the grown-up gamer) - there is no way for them to have abuse shouted at them in a multiplayer game unless they specifically set up voice chat and get a headset (unlike on the Playstation or Xbox where voice chat is usually enabled by default for online games and the consoles ship with a headset).

The parental controls seem pretty good (caveat: I haven't used them) - you can see how much they've played, limit total time, restrict what games they can play.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 4:15 AM on April 4, 2018 [14 favorites]

We just got a Nintendo Switch for our 8.5yo son who is obsessed with gaming even though he hasn't really played much. It seemed to us like the games with the Nintendo were more age-appropriate. He is only allowed to play on weekends (around an hour each weekend day) and the Switch has a timer with parental controls. I don't know how it compares to an Xbox or a Playstation in terms of those controls, but we didn't even look at those because I figured it would be a short amount of time before he would be begging us for single-person shooter games like Halo. We don't intend to set up an account for him to play online with strangers at this age.

Half of his friends have stricter screen time rules than we do, so another rule we have is no video games on weekday playdates, and we limit the time to about 45 minutes if he has a friend over on a weekend. He also plays a sport each season (soccer and basketball) and does Boy Scouts, and walks to school, so I figure he's getting out and moving around a reasonable amount. I suspect that playdate rule will be harder to enforce as more of his friends start gaming. We didn't intend to get a console this year, but we found he was just sneaking around with the iPad and downloading games that we felt were inappropriate for his age. So we thought a console set up in the living room would be easier to manage....

We are still figuring all this out as he's our first kid and is REALLY into video games, so I'm interested to hear from other parents as well.
posted by Shazbot at 4:16 AM on April 4, 2018 [2 favorites]

The Switch is a good console, but the game library is small, over-priced and I think the 'take me everywhere! play me whenever you're bored! and then plug me in to the TV at home!' is precisely the wrong way to teach healthy gaming habits. Sure, you can disallow it, but it's a potential source of conflict and bad habits, whereas your typical boat-anchor console restricts itself.

Also, I'd probably wait until ten or eleven, or whatever age you're comfortable with him doing physical/outside play without total supervision -- when kids get consoles at an age that they stil need to be supervised doing other activities, it's easy for the console to become the default activity when parental attention is unavailable. Same as over-reliance on TV or phone/tablet games, I suppose.
posted by snuffleupagus at 4:22 AM on April 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

All the main consoles have roughly equivalent parental controls. The biggest part of that is you, not a config or feature on the console itself. If you set the right expectation about the kinds of games you're happy with, and the amount of time spent playing them, and you can all talk about that and come to an agreement that everyone is comfortable with, then you're already on the right track. Play close attention to the age rating of each game - they're set where they are for a reason. There's no pleading for Halo or CoD or whatever in our house - I point to the PEGI rating and shrug, and the conversation ends right there.

Nintendo has historically been targeted more at younger kids and family-oriented games. But, Playstation and Xbox also both have age-appropriate games a-plenty. If you go ahead, your choice would probably be affected by which platform and which games all your kid's friends are playing. Online multiplayer is a big big thing in many games that are popular with younger kids (think Fortnite, Fifa, Rocket League) - if that's what your kid's friends are doing, chances are that he'll be keen to join in with them - that's a lot easier if they have the same console. So, ask around (not just him - his friends' parents too).
posted by rd45 at 4:23 AM on April 4, 2018 [6 favorites]

Online multiplayer is a big big thing in many games that are popular with younger kids (think Fortnite...

So are older kids or young adults trolling younger kids (an actual YouTube genre, somehow), as well as young kids calling other kids (or adults) faggot and retard....just, holy shit, multiplayer -- and esepcially multiplayer first person shooters -- is the Eye of Sauron when it comes to gamer toxicity and is exactly the wrong thing to encourage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qKbK4d15lE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42QFd0tBw0s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mk1Wfw53ZT0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_-AnsXL81Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY_Sz1p0OHE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZlwlrNYOj4
posted by snuffleupagus at 4:51 AM on April 4, 2018 [2 favorites]

I have a WiiU and on the weekend I will play with my kids (ages 3 and 6) on it. Whatever game we end up playing is all ages and I don't need to worry about any online unpleasantness. Once in a blue moon they'll let me play Zelda for 15 minutes but then it's back to one of their games.

For me I look at video games as another activity that we can do together. As they get older and their tastes change there will likely be conflicts over what kinds of games they can play but for the time being we're ok. When older kids(10-13) come over they don't get bored playing the games either so that gives me hope that those conflicts will be some ways away.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 6:19 AM on April 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

Just to bracket my comments, I should add that I am not an actual parent but have been boyfriend-auxillary-parent to two sets of kids covering the age range of 4 - 10 years, and got my first console, an NES, at around seven years old.
posted by snuffleupagus at 6:24 AM on April 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

Have you gauged what console his friends use? What games they play? What he's expressed a preference for? The parental control stuff you've got down (parental awareness, sticking to screen time rules, that's 90% of it right there) but maybe try and avoid buy anything that would disappoint, or leave him left out of the crowd.
posted by macdara at 6:27 AM on April 4, 2018 [2 favorites]

(Never mind, I missed rd45's comment in my first pass. Carry on!)
posted by macdara at 6:35 AM on April 4, 2018

I have a 9 year old and an Xbox 360. I bought used games at gamestop for a few bucks each. He plays in the living room. He has no ability to download or communicate with other players.
Also iPad games are more his thing.
posted by k8t at 7:19 AM on April 4, 2018 [2 favorites]

The Switch has a lot of cachet for kids these days, in my experience. It also has a plenty large library when you include some of the more indie-type games, which are also less expensive. Its tentpoles: Zelda, Mario, Splatoon. Much more kid friendly than PS or XB tentpoles. If I had a child of that age, I would certainly opt for the switch.
posted by dbx at 8:21 AM on April 4, 2018

The Switch is a good console, but the game library is small, over-priced and I think the 'take me everywhere! play me whenever you're bored! and then plug me in to the TV at home!' is precisely the wrong way to teach healthy gaming habits.

This. Even as an adult I have a bit of a problem with it. It's too convenient, if that can be a thing. And the library is quite small -- you get Mario and Zelda and Splatoon and a bunch of indie shovelware and... that's about it. Of course, it's only been out for a year.

(I'll also point out that Nintendo seems keenly aware of the toxic-online-gamer problem, and as a result they generally strictly limit communication between players -- preset phrases, etc. There isn't a mic on the console, or any way to plug one in.)
posted by neckro23 at 8:49 AM on April 4, 2018 [2 favorites]

The Nintendo Switch game library is "small" because it's a newer console but I spent about 200+ hours playing Zelda. I haven't started Mario Odyssey yet but I imagine it'll be similar. Mario Kart is also fun and great for playing against friends. Just Dance is fun and is a bit of exercise too. Splatoon doesn't interest me but people seem to like it. Caveat: I am a kidless adult.
posted by AppleTurnover at 9:03 AM on April 4, 2018

I would absolutely start with a Wii U. It’s backward compatible with wii games and that really increases the playability and cheap games. The systems are also lower priced. I’m an avid gamer and still haven’t sprung for the Switch because there’s only one or two games we want. (We have a wii but not a Wii U but are busy with Xbox games.) Definitely see what other kids have but at that age I was using my Super Nintendo and Nintendo 64 which had similar games to the Wii and Wii U including the fact that you can purchase those old games on the systems. (And I have!) ETA: Many Zelda games including Breath of the Wild on Wii U.
posted by Crystalinne at 9:10 AM on April 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

Judging by my 7 year old nephew, Nintendo Switch is the console kids are playing. If kids get together and play (my nephew & his pals do this a lot), being familiar with the game & platform can make that much easier. If solitary play is the only use, the field is open to other systems.
posted by quince at 9:52 AM on April 4, 2018

We don't allow gaming during the school week.

Regarding console choice, your child will know which console he wants as he'll want the same one the majority of his friends play. Playing games with your friends is most of the fun.
posted by LoveHam at 10:25 AM on April 4, 2018 [3 favorites]

I would get him the same console that his best friend has. It's really important to encourage kids to play with other kids they know in real life. All the good games these days are multiplayer and online, and many of the popular games do not allow cross-multiplayer, so it's very helpful in that regard.

I wouldn't try to protect them from online people and harassment. But, I would carefully coach them in online behavior. Teach them to respond to hate or meanness with kindness or humor. Teach them to be upbeat when everyone else is downtrodden. Teach them to be a beacon of hope when others are salty.

They will be playing online games with friends when they visit their houses anyway, or they will when they are older somehow anyway. Once they show interest is the best time you can still educate them on doing things properly, otherwise they will find a way to do it without your guidance anyway. (Same goes for, ya know, having girlfriends, learning to drive, etc)
posted by bbqturtle at 11:32 AM on April 4, 2018 [5 favorites]

My daughters swear by Nintendo; they've had the last several iterations of DS and now have a Switch. (I don't buy these. Eldest daughter is now adult and has money of her own; she buys these.) The Switch library is small now but growing, and a number of the better indie developers are getting annoyed that they can't get discovered on Steam and are working out licenses with Nintendo to be on the Switch. (Eldest daughter is thrilled for the chance to buy Undertale for a new platform.)

Nintendo hardware and their games are designed for kids. They know a lot of their audience is also adults, but kid-appropriate is built into the business from the start.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 11:55 AM on April 4, 2018

The Switch has a ton of fun games on it, and it is the one console I would want to own. But if his classmates having game consoles is a big part of why he's asking (or why you're asking on his behalf), it's probably because they're playing a lot of online multiplayer games, which are a bigger deal on the PS4 or Xbox.

If you're up for him playing those, which is another thing entirely—even setting aside the abuse/toxicity question, it is just a very big, loud, sticky culture, and you'll get a steady dose of Hilarious Gaming Memes from him for the next several years—you'll want to ask him what his friends have, since Sony is not interested in making cross-platform games interoperable.
posted by Polycarp at 2:58 PM on April 4, 2018

Anyone who says the Switch has a small game library is not using the eShop, apparently. It has dozens of games coming out every month and many of them are high-quality indie games that you can download for cheap.

And, as mentioned above, you don't have to worry about the problems of online play because Nintendo makes it very, very difficult to actually communicate with other players. You play with/against them, but you don't talk to each other really.
posted by tacodave at 4:18 PM on April 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

How about a Vectrex? Or a Vic-20 with some game cartridges? And a cassette drive so he can type in some games published in old magazines.
posted by Sophont at 8:07 PM on April 4, 2018