Gaming safety: what parents often miss

Worth starting with some balance: a UK survey by Opinium found that 60% of gamers say gaming improves their mental health, with a further 15% saying it improves it significantly, against just 2% who say it makes things worse. Gaming isn't the problem this guide is about; a handful of specific, avoidable risks are.

The Mental Health Foundation's 2022 study of UK players found the same benefits come with documented "shadow sides": the social connection gaming offers can also mean exposure to online bullying, abuse, or harassment, and the sense of control games can give a player can tip into feeling out of control of one's own play, at the expense of sleep, work, or other responsibilities. Both are worth watching for specifically, rather than treated as an unavoidable cost of gaming.

Every boxed or digitally-sold game in the UK carries a PEGI age rating (3, 7, 12, 16, or 18), alongside icons for the specific reasons behind it: violence, bad language, fear, gambling-style content, or in-game purchases. These ratings are about content, not difficulty, so a "12" isn't a comment on how hard a game is to play.

The rating is printed on the store page for almost every game, digital or physical, and takes a few seconds to check before a download or a purchase. That single habit catches more than most parental control software does on its own.

Most multiplayer games let players text or voice-chat with strangers by default, teammates matched by the game rather than people a child actually knows. This is the same category of risk as a stranger messaging on social media, just wearing a different costume, and it deserves the same response: treat an online teammate as a stranger until proven otherwise, whatever friendly things they say.

Most games let you turn chat off entirely or restrict it to friends only, buried a layer or two into the settings menu. It's worth finding that setting together rather than assuming the defaults were chosen with a child in mind.

Loot boxes, battle passes, and limited-time cosmetic offers are built using the same psychology as a slot machine: a small, uncertain reward that keeps a player coming back for one more attempt. Several countries have already restricted loot boxes for exactly this reason, though UK rules on this are still evolving.

A card saved on a shared device, or a store account that stays logged in, turns every one of these prompts into a single tap away from real spending. Removing saved payment details from a child's device, or requiring a PIN for every purchase, closes that gap without needing to ban the game itself.

• Check the PEGI rating and the reason icons before buying or downloading a game.
• Look at the in-game chat settings together, and decide what's actually needed.
• Remove stored card details from a shared or child device, or add a purchase PIN.
• Treat a stranger in voice or text chat the same way you'd treat one anywhere else online.

• Mental Health Foundation, "Mind Gaming" report (2022): source for the online bullying/harassment and loss-of-control findings, and the Opinium (2021) wellbeing survey it cites. This study covered adult players aged 18 to 60, not children specifically, so its findings are used here as general context rather than child-specific evidence.