To gamescom 2025How to guide children through safe gaming

Today, the world's largest video games fair, gamescom, opens its doors to all visitors in Cologne. At klicksafe, parents can find detailed information about video games and media education. Although gaming is now part of everyday life for many people, parents still have many questions about how to guide children sensibly in the world of video games. To coincide with the start of gamescom, we have therefore put together an article with lots of information on this topic for you.

How to guide children through safe gaming

For millions of children and young people, digital games are part of their daily leisure activities. This is also illustrated by figures from the latest annual report of the German games industry: around one in five gamers in Germany is under the age of 18, and  3.8 million children under the age of nine already play video games. The majority of them have positive experiences. However, there are also some negative aspects that parents and guardians should be aware of. We have described some of these problems below and provide tips on how parents can deal with them.

Cybergrooming

Contacting children and young people with the aim of preparing sexual abuse is known as cybergrooming. Perpetrators look for platforms where they can meet many children. This also includes video game platforms that are popular with minors. For example Roblox or Fortnite. All platforms offer safety precautions that can make gaming safer for children. However, the problem is that this protection is often only effective if parents have made the right settings. It is therefore important that children and parents set up user accounts together and that parents are aware of and use all available safety features. Parents should also educate their children about the typical signs of cybergrooming. In this way, children learn to assess when they should seek help from their parents or other trusted persons.

Cost traps in games

Loot boxes, free-to-play, microtransactions - there are now many mechanisms designed to get players to spend money in games. Children in particular can quickly lose track of the actual costs. With in-game purchases, for example, players can acquire game advantages or buy digital items for their game characters. These can have a high value for children, similar to toys, trading cards or stickers. Therefore, try to understand why your child wants to make a purchase and then decide together.

Data protection

Almost all games and games consoles are now connected to the internet. In order to use games and services, registration is usually required. Make children and young people aware that they should only enter the absolutely necessary data online. Large gaming platforms have often been the target of hacker attacks and data theft. You should therefore also discuss password protection and set up two-factor authentication.

  • klicksafe brochure "Data protection tips for parents"

Toxic gaming community

Millions of people come together every day in the online world of video games. Unfortunately, things are not always friendly. Insults, threats, bullying and harassment are no exceptions. How problematic the respective community is varies from game to game and from platform to platform. Most major gaming platforms have community guidelines. These set out the rules that apply on the platform (e.g. no insults, no threats, etc.). Parents should look at these guidelines together with their child. This way, the child learns how they should behave themselves and also learns to recognize rule violations by other players. Violations of the community guidelines can usually be reported directly in the game via a reporting system . Parents should therefore familiarize their children with these reporting systems. In serious cases of insults, hate speech or stalking, organizations such as  HateAid or other counselling services also offer help.

Problematic content

Not all games are suitable for children and young people. In Germany, the Entertainment Software Self-Regulation Body (USK) therefore checks all games before they are published and issues an age rating. However, these are not recommendations or educational assessments. For example, an age rating of six years and above merely means that the game no longer poses a developmental impairment for children aged six and above. Nevertheless, the game can be overwhelming for some children of this age, for example because it contains complicated game mechanics that are incomprehensible to younger children. It is therefore worthwhile for parents to check whether there is further educational information about a game in addition to the age rating before buying.

Games as an introduction to the Internet

Huge fan communities have sprung up around many popular video games. As a fan, you don't just play the game, you also watch the YouTube videos of the relevant influencers, follow their social media channels on Instagram and TikTok, participate in communities on Discord and Steam, follow live streams on the Twitch platform and much more. A fascination with one game can therefore easily lead to access to a variety of other platforms. Unfortunately, many of these platforms are not suitable for children. If parents want to allow their children access, they should definitely find out about the platforms beforehand, make safe settings from the outset and supervise their use.

Excessive gaming

Where "excessive" gaming begins is something that must be negotiated individually in each family. Symptoms such as social withdrawal or loss of control over gaming behavior must exist for at least 12 months before a "video game addiction" is present. However, to prevent problematic media use from occurring in the first place, binding, comprehensible and jointly drawn up rules on media consumption can help. These rules provide guidance for you and your child and can prevent arguments.