Comments on: Learning: Home, Gaming and Young Children

By: Kid Fleetfoot

Kid Fleetfoot — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 18:38:09 +0000

Were there a way for children to only have access to private spaces if a parent signs them up is a nice thought in my opinion. Whether this is feasible I do not know.

Bramblenook Farm is I believe a good space for younger children to play in.

By: dlbrainbowgirl

dlbrainbowgirl — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 17:23:08 +0000

I think the concept of a somewhat separate HOME for younger audiences is possible. HOME could have settings for users under a certain age that include: vague, fantasy or completely gender neutral avatars similar to the WII avatars and the removal of ‘shopping’. These settings might help deter older users trying to pose as children. Chat could be further restricted or reduced to the use of predesignated phrases to also prevent older users from ‘trolling’.

Even without a shopping function, creating rewards tied to children’s games is an easy way for Sony to create exposure, and help market games for different devices, especially Vita and mobile devices.

By: Burbie52

Burbie52 — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 09:58:03 +0000

I think that Home could have a lot of benefits for younger kids as well. I have friends who let their 7 year old come into Home with strict supervision. She goes to only Mui Mui island and the Loco Roco spaces and loves them immensely. The new Spunland space in EU seems to be very childlike from what I have heard as is the Yeck space we got here.
Educational games and spaces could be easily integrated into Home, as shown by the aquarium I wrote about in Japan Home, but in order for Sony to allow toddlers in, there would have to be a totally different set of heavily password guarded areas and I am afraid that they will never do it.
The idea is a sound one, children learn in a whole new way since the onset of videos and gaming and I wish there was a way to implement this into Home.
Great article Cheeks.

By: Gary160974

Gary160974 — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 08:41:16 +0000

A lot of social MMOs have measures in place so kids dont get issues or just wouldn’t be enjoyable for kids, if a kid can get round the age restrictions the first games they will be playing is black ops or GTA

By: RiverCreek

RiverCreek — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 05:36:03 +0000

…

I am a new first time grandmother right now and I am concerned because my 2 1/2 yr old granddaughter is outrageously EXTREMELY computer mobile phone gaming literate!!!

There is so much I could say right now… but all I’m going to say is…what a beautiful article Cheeky!!! Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!!!

By: stevev363

stevev363 — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 04:52:00 +0000

I find the idea that Home management taking on the responsibility to rigorously monitor and control Home for an audience below the age of 13 to be quite amusing considering their current standard is to leave the monitoring up to the community itself by asking them to report, block and ignore. I do appreciate that you can actually see Home being on the PS4 which is optimism that hasn’t been shared by other articles in the recent past on HSM. If I did have children I would be the type of parent to monitor what my children were playing and would block usage of Home until they were in their teens because of the things that I myself have seen. I got my first console when I was 7, my older brother gave me an Atari 2600 which my parents would never have spent the money on and I played that thing constantly unless I was allowed to play games at the arcade while supervised. Today’s game developers are looking for the largest market to appeal to and young children just aren’t where the money is at. Wonderbook however is pretty good for children, I’ve actually played that with my nephew and niece as well as a few Kinect games. But a virtual world or a social mmo is the last place I would introduce them to until they were at least old enough to really understand the dangers that they could come across on their own.