30 years USKDigital games - what parents should look out for

For millions of children and young people, digital games are part of their daily leisure activities. To ensure that children have a positive experience, they should use age-appropriate and safe games. The USK's age ratings provide many parents with guidance when making their choice. The USK has been testing digital games for 30 years. Here you can find out what you need to bear in mind when playing games safely and how you can guide children competently.

Online games are one of the most popular leisure activities among young people. Digital games also teach team spirit, frustration tolerance and strategic skills - not to mention leisure fun and shared experiences. However, digital games also offer a gateway to negative experiences and harbor risks such as cybergrooming, hate speech, cyberbullying or exposure to content that is harmful to minors. Manipulative game designs (also known as dark patterns) and cost traps through in-app purchases to buy game advantages or obtain digital items are also problematic in gaming. For parents and users, these risks are not easily recognizable at first glance. This is because not every online game with a child-friendly design is also suitable for children. 

An important initial guide for many parents is the USK age rating. The colorful information shows at a glance the age at which a game is generally safe from a youth protection perspective. The Entertainment Software Self-Regulation Body (USK) has carried out around 56,000 review procedures since it was founded in 1994. After testing, digital games are given an age recommendation of 0, 6, 12, 16 or 18 years.

Age ratings are not educational recommendations

The age ratings given are not to be understood as educational recommendations. Whether a game is suitable for your child should depend on both the age rating and the individual level of development. It is best to play the game yourself beforehand and use educational game ratings.

Helping children with gaming - tips for parents  

Accompany children and young people confidently when gaming and thus strengthen their media skills and safe participation. You should pay attention to this:  

  • Find out exactly what the game content is, the minimum age, the usage guidelines and possible risks and safety settings. 
  • Accompany your children attentively in everyday life in order to recognize possible signs of excessive gaming behaviour in good time and take countermeasures. 
  • Switch off push notifications that keep reminding children to play in their cell phone settings. 
  • Limit playtime and ensure that the agreed times are adhered to.A media usage agreement negotiated by the family can be helpful. 
  • Determine whether and to what extent (e.g. pocket money) in-game purchases may be made by the child. If you do not want to allow such purchases, you can prevent them on the device.  
  • Discuss rules for online communication with your child. Make them aware of contact risks such as unfair communication in chats(cyberbullying) or unwanted contact and sexual assault(cybergrooming). 
  • Show your child the help section and the reporting options for inappropriate content in online games. 
  • Keep in regular contact about your child's activities. You can find suitable conversation startershere