What age is appropriate to start letting kids play video games?
Deciding when to introduce video games is difficult because young children can easily become frustrated with controls or overly fixate on screens, leaving parents unsure if a child is truly ready. This uncertainty makes it hard to know when to buy a console without risking it going unused or causing behavioral meltdowns.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Waiting until children are older (ages 5 to 8+) before allowing them to playDid this help you?
- 2Limiting gaming to short sessions with timers or supervisionDid this help you?
- 3Offering alternative activities like board games, flashcards, coloring books, or farm visitsDid this help you?
- 4Allowing young children to only watch, direct the gameplay, or name characters while parents playDid this help you?
- 5Putting money towards a sport or physical activity instead of a consoleDid this help you?
- 6Limiting gaming time and only playing together as a group activity with a parentDid this help you?
- 7Banning computer use at certain timesDid this help you?
- 8Encouraging non-screen-based play, board games, or LegoDid this help you?
- 9letting children play the existing games until they start to grow boredDid this help you?
- 10saving extra games to give later as giftsDid this help you?
- 11setting established play times and boundariesDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I would love to be able to build together in sims and play Stardew together but I really don’t know what the right age is.”source ↗
“Yesterday I was playing Stardew Valley when my daughter was sleeping. She woke up around 11 and was begging her dad to see me so she came to me but noticed I had farm animals on my screen and wanted to see. All day today she’s been asking to see the ‘monsters’ (in the mines) and the cows but I feel like it’s too early for her to be introduced to gaming.”source ↗
“My kid is five, and I'm trying to cut down on the time he spends sitting in front of the computer. We've tried controller games. He liked it at first, then got frustrated after hitting the wrong buttons a few times and threw the controller down.”source ↗
“Does anyone have a game console for their kids? do kids actually stick with them? I'd hate to buy another thing that ends up sitting in a corner collecting dust.”source ↗
Where this came up
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