We’ve all seen ads for Quibi and it has officially launched. So what the heck is a Quibi? I first heard about Quibi at CES in 2019. I wasn’t sure what it was all about except that a lot of celebrities from different genres were endorsing (and likely investing) in the app. Turns out Quibi is a video streaming app designed for use on your mobile device. It was founded by Jefferey Katzenberg, of Disney productions fame, and features short, high-quality television shows news reports, sports features, and movies.
Right now, the content on Quibi seems to be 100% original. In fact. A lot of the shows on Quibi are produced by and starring the celebrity backers that you see in the commercials. Shows star the likes of Chance the Rapper, Lebron James, Liam Hemsworth, and Chrissy Teigen.
What the Heck Is a Quibi?
Quibi features short-form content or normal length content split into short-form episodes. You can usually watch an episode in five to ten minutes and with episodes releasing daily it doesn’t take too long to get to the end of a series. I found myself interested in a show called Murder House Flip, a blend of true crime and home improvement. The first story, renovating a house where a gruesome murder took place thirty years ago, took three episodes to complete. Total running time was similar to that of a half-hour show on TV if you account for ad breaks.
image: Quibi
Watching Murder House Flip is where it clicked for me. Quibi isn’t all that different than television except for being formatted for your mobile device. It is a new concept for high definition, highly produced shows, and movies to flip to verticle mode when you tilt your phone but that’s about where the innovation stops in my opinion. Television has always been featured in short bits, split up by advertising. The difference here is that the content is a bit shorter overall, including the advertising content. I think Quibi is more of a tv channel than a world-changing app.
What Parents Should Know
There is currently no content on Quibi for children. The shows on Quibi, like most streaming services, are rated 14+ up to Mature. You will hear adult language and see some adult themes as well. Most content wouldn’t even be very entertaining for most younger viewers. I would rate the app 16+. As I mentioned above, the idea that Quibi is innovative is only partly accurate. Younger digital natives will see this concept as new. One show being split into several parts separated by ads is pretty new to young ones who are used to clicking play and binging, ad-free, and interruption-free with whole seasons of shows being released all at once. Those of us who lived through Saturday morning cartoons and TGIF every week aren’t so impressed.
I will remind you that the content on Quibi is considered rated teen or higher. Many of the shows feature adult language, extreme violence, and some sexual content. While you may enjoy Quibi, since the shows are new and feature some celebrities that we all love, I wouldn’t recommend it for your kids.
Doodlematic lets you take a picture you’ve drawn on paper and turn it into a playable mobile game.
I met Martin Horstman, the dad who developed Doodlematic at CES2020. He talked me through how you can take any kind of art, as long as it uses the colors the APP recognizes, to create a real playable mobile game. They sent us their box set and we were able to play with it. My son had a blast drawing out games, especially platformer games that you had to jump from platform to platform an achieve goals.
To use Doodlematic, you simply draw the game on paper, take a photo of it, the APP processes it, and then you play. You can then share it in the Doodlematic app and other people can jump in and play your games if you’ve allowed them to be public.
How it Works
There are two types of games you can create on doodle matic. You can make the platformer, like I mentioned already, or you can make an Angry Birds style launch game where you shoot your “avatar” over to knock over targets. It’s all based on a series of different colors that create different types of objects in the game. Anything black is your platform or your ground. Red is obstacles, things that get in your way and end the game when your avatar touches them. Blue items are your goals and anything green is your character or avatar.
Your avatar jumps from platform to platform trying to grab the blue goals while avoiding all of the red obstacles. The app uses the colors to develop the Games behavior. This allows kids to basically make the game whatever they want it to be. The best part is there’s a lot of trial and error. I don’t know how many times my son drew something, took a photo of it, and then realized game just didn’t work properly. Not because the app was messed up but because his drawing didn’t allow the Doodlematic to do what it needed to do to make the game playable. Back to the drawing board, literally. Just a few fixes here and there and the games was doing what he wanted it to.
What You Get
Doodlematic comes in a box with notebooks to guide you through the game creation process. It takes you through a step by step tutorial showing you what to draw and how to use that to create the behavior you want in game.
Doodlematic is probably usable for any kid over three years old. Once they can draw a little bit and grab a pen or pencil, they can create a game in the app. There are some advanced controls you can set up that make things move back and forth constantly or make the obstacles do things. You can learn how to do that as you gain more experience in Doodlematic. However, all you have to do to get started is draw with the proper colors and play your games.
Apps like Doodlematic are great for kids because they teach them that trial and error process that’s necessary in developing any kind of technology. If you’re learning to code or if you’ve done any website building or graphic design you know that there’s a lot of times you start to create something that just cannot work. Then you have to go back to the drawing board. Doodleatic gives you a similar experience but it’s also still fun. It doesn’t take away any of the excitement because you know what you did wrong and can fix it.Then, suddenly, your game is working. That sense of reward and excitement is real and kids love it.
I have four kids. All of them have loved Doodlematic. My boys loved it. My Girls Loved it. My twelve year old loved it and my five year old loved it too.? I recommend checking it out at the website below and getting your family into Doodlematic and make yourself some games. You’ll love it.
The rating below is based on the game content. Online interactions will always increase the risk of unwanted content.
Violence – 1
Language – 1
Sexual Content – 4
Positive Message – 1
Total Score – 7out of 20
(The higher the rating, the safer the game is for kids.)
ESRB Rating – M for Mature [for Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, and Use of Drugs]
The Game
Call of Duty has set the standard for realistic first person shooter gaming for more than 15 years. 2019’s Modern Warfare seems to be a tribute to the original games in that the story of the latest release is as good as any in every other CoD game to date. The campaign mode takes you through the story through the eyes of British, American, and Middle Eastern soldiers and insurgents who are fighting to free a country from a Russian general and his armies. The story is rich and the characters include soldiers you’ve fought with in different games, giving an instant buy in and causing you to care about these characters from early in the story. While the game does ask you to make some pretty difficult decisions, the realism is unlike any other FPS game I’ve ever played, mostly because of the gruesome situations you are put in during the campaign. Overall, Call of Duty Modern Warfare, as much as the campaign is concerned, is one of the best games of 2019. I recommend it for those mature enough to play as long as you have a strong constitution.
Violence [1]
Violence is intense in this game. Explosions blow people apart, every bullet hit causes a spray of blood that can be seen from far away. The rag doll effect is used to increase realism causing enemies to fall limply to the ground and fly through the sky when an explosion takes place nearby. Like many of the most recent Call of Duty games there is an option to disable gore effects but this option is in the settings and not password protected. If you set the gore settings to off they can be easily turned back on without any trouble.
Language [1]
CoD Modern Warfare is full of profanity. Every mature word in the book is used in the game and in every mode of the game. Commentary from non-player characters contains extreme language and obviously online multiplayer modes is likely to contain adult language from other users as well. The gore/content filter will turn off language from characters in the game but, again, it isn’t password protection and online play is not affected by these settings.
Sexual Content [4]
There isn’t any obvious sexual content in CoD Modern Warfare. Early in the campaign you interrupt a man who is abusing a woman, it is hinted that he was possibly going to abuse her sexually. You kill him before anything happens. There are some character models/outfits that could be considered revealing, especially with cleavage in the multiplayer modes.
Positive Message [1]
Modern Warfare is honest about the cruelty and awful things that happen in modern war. It sets up the Russians as enemies and the US and the UK as the heroes. The campaign story is very dark in places and, while intriguing and well performed, is intended for adult audiences. This game puts players through situations that those who experience PTSD from actual combat often describe as what gave them their condition. Kids who experience anxiety and anxiousness could be seriously harmed by the extreme situations in Call of Duty Modern Warfare.
You could argue that the cruelty shown in this game can be a commentary on how awful war can be but the fact that you spend 99% of your time in the game participating in combat would likely overshadow any lesson the game is trying to teach.
What Parents Should Know
The most important information about this specific game is already mentioned above. I would like to address something I see often when discussing violent video games and first person shooters. There are different schools of thought on the dangers of violent first and third person shooter video games. Obviously there are some who think they are bad for everyone, decreasing sensitivity to violence, and causing people to act out. There is little actual evidence to back up this opinion but there are those who will always feel this way. Another group feels that these games are no big deal. They believe that playing games with violence and blood and gore can help kids understand the true danger of gun violence and lower the risk they they themselves become violent. Many will compare games like Call of Duty to other shooters like Fortnite by saying that Fortnite is too tongue in cheek and puts our kids at risk because it doesn’t take combat seriously enough. As the first opinion there is little to no evidence supporting these ideas either.
The only statements about violent video games that can be backed up by viable research is that they can cause increased anxiety and adrenaline in children, can exacerbate attention problems in children who already have those issues, and that there is far too little research to outline the true effects these games have on our children. It may be difficult for parents to be alright with the fact that there is no obvious bad or good answer for video games like Modern Warfare. The truth is that you have to know your child and their maturity level. You should watch their behavior and pay attention to signs like grades, relationships, diet, and exercise to be sure your child has a healthy balance between life and time on their screens.
Meet Circle, Our Favorite Home WiFi Parental Control Solution
We love Circle. It monitors our kids online activity and protects them from happening upon websites they should be avoiding. I recommend Circle everywhere I go and to everyone I talk to. They have released a NEW VERSION of Circle that includes a year of premium features when you buy the device. If you are ok with having the older version (which is still supported, at least for now) you can get it for a third of the original price on Amazon right now.
A Kid Friendly Watch with Messaging
You may not want your child to have their own phone but need them to be able to contact you when necessary. This watch uses the Android operating system and allows GPS tracking, WiFi, Calls and Messaging. It also has a camera. The watch is kid sized, made for children ages 4-12. If you want the phone call option you will need to get a sim card from your cell service provider (Verizon and Sprint not supported.)
Have Some Screen Free Fun!
Parental Control doesn’t always mean keeping them safe while on technology. Sometimes it means keeping them off of tech completely. Board games are a great way to achieve the goal of entertaining your kids without screen time.
Whatever age your kids are, there are some awesome off screen games available on Amazon’s Prime Day today. Whether you want to build a Unicorn Army, expand civilization through villages and farms, or collect jewels to earn more points than your opponents, these games are a ton of fun! Check out the deals on these tabletop games and sit down with your family, with no screens, and have a good time. Board games encourage eye contact, communication, healthy competition, and creative/critical thinking. They are good for learning as well as fun.
Enjoy Each-other Outdoors
Sometimes you just have to get outside. These activities will give you a chance to leave the technology indoors and head out for some “green time.” Use your aim and dexterity to score as many points as possible in the classic Ladder Toss game which is on sale at a special Prime Day price for then next couple of days. If you’d rather toss Horse Shoes, this kid safe version of the outdoor favorite is also priced for Prime Day. If you want a new twist on an old classic, check out this Cornhole/Golf Chipping Target combo. It’s only $40 today.
Thanks for partnering with BecauseFamily (Four Point Families 501c3)
BecauseFamily exists to protect children and teenagers by bridging the technology gap between them and their parents. As we work to provide resources to parents and kids alike, you partnership helps us continue our mission to keep kids safe. Your options for supporting BecauseFamily are available at BecauseFamily.org/partnership and include direct donation through PayPal, ongoing support of our media content through Patreon, using our affiliate links, and signing up to support us on smile.amazon.com. The links above all direct you to the smile.amazon.com page for those products. You may be asked to sign up for who to support, search Four Point Families to elect us as the benefactor of your Amazon Smile donations. We are eternally grateful for your support!
Listen to any of the current top ten songs and you’ll find all sorts of content that may not be considered appropriate for children. Profanity, sexual content, violence, and suicidal ideation abound in today’s popular music. How can we, as parents, keep an eye on what our children are listening to without having to go through and read lyrics for every song on every playlist? Bark is offering a pretty good solution with their latest update. The AI-based message monitoring system now monitors lyrics on Spotify.
Connecting your accounts to Bark is pretty simple with the Android app but demands a bit more tech expertise to connect to iOS (due to Apple’s strict anti-monitoring policies.) You have to download Bark’s software to your computer and then set your child’s iPad or iPhone to back up to that same computer in order for Bark to monitor the device. Spotify, however, connects on the account level which means set up is a simple as logging in to Spotify and giving Bark permission to access data in the app. That does mean that shared accounts will be monitored as one so your listening habits will be monitored as well and then reported to you as if your kids listened. We raised our Spotify subscription to the 14.99 price in order to set up separate accounts for our kids. This means they can be monitored separately giving us more accurate reports.
Reports from Bark are notifications about specific songs with the lyrics listed along with recommendations for discussing the songs with your children. We saw immediately that some of the songs our son was listening to had some lyrics that were a bit more violent than we would approve of. We were able to discuss this with him and he removed them from one of his playlists immediately. The songs were in no way “explicit” since we have turned off access to explicit content on his Spotify app but the Bark system allows you to set the sensitivity so that it will report songs that even hint at innuendo, violence, or other adult content. Our approach is to always err on the side of caution so we have sensitivity turned all the way up.
Bark’s message monitoring has also resulted in quality conversations with our children, even within just a few days of activating the software. We were notified that our daughter had been “bullied.” It turned out she was just telling her brother to stop texting her over and over again. The AI noticed that she was asking him to stop and he was continuing to message her and it flagged it. That is EXACTLY the kind of thing we want to be notified of. Her brother was just being annoying but if that was some older boy asking for pictures or a friend telling her something inappropriate or mean, we want to be notified. For us, a false alarm is evidence that the software is working and we are happy to weed through false reports so that we’ll be sure to get the one that could save us and our children from a lot of trouble.
Song lyrics, videos, messages, and social media posts are helping shape our kids’ worldviews. We should be on guard against the kinds of content that don’t meet our family’s standards. Bark allows you to do that without your kids’ privacy being interfered with. You don’t see all their messages, just the ones that Bark flags as potential dangers. This means they can have their phone or tablet, message their friends, watch their shows, and listen to their music without you always asking what they’re doing. You won’t have to ask because you’ll be alerted if they do something you don’t approve of. Just remember that we never recommend spying on our kids without their knowledge. Talk with them about Bark and any other software you use to report content. Let them know why you are using the software and talk with them about any reports you receive. This is how we help them build a healthy attitude towards tech.
You can get Bark by clicking THIS LINK, using the promo code: BF56WBD, or clicking the banner near the top of this article. We are an affiliate of Bark and will receive a small donation when you pay Bark for your subscription. Thank you for protecting your kids and for supporting this blog and our ministry.
The rating below is based on the game content. Online interactions will always increase the risk of unwanted content.
Violence – 3
Language – 4
Sexual Content – 5
Positive Message – 2
Total Score – 14out of 20
(The higher the rating, the safer the game is for kids.)
ESRB Rating – T for Teen [for blood and violence]
The Game
Dauntless is made by Epic Games, the same developers who made Fortnite. The world is called “The Shattered Isles,” floating islands make up the landscape and the Behemoth are too close to civilization. You are a Slayer, one of the defenders of the cities, you must hunt and kill these beasts, using their parts and armor to create new weapons and armor of your own, thus making you more effective at slaying the monsters of the Shattered Isles.
Violence
The violence in Dauntless is player vs monster or monster vs player. You go out on missions to destroy these monsters and swing your sword, hammer, axe, or pike or shoot your blaster at it. There are some sprays of blood sometimes but mostly it is just to add flavor, there is no gore to speak of in this game. Even when you slice off a part of the behemoth, the appendage looks more like a T-bone steak than any kind of disgusting severed body part. The intensity of the violence can be high but it always (at least early on) feels like you’re going to succeed at defeating the monster. You just want to score as highly as possible while you do it.
Language
There is some minor (Rated PG) language during the intro cinematic of the game. Beyond that, you aren’t going to hear any language at all, except for other players while playing online. Most of the communication with non-player characters in the game is through text and it is usually just lore and mission details. Not a lot of flavor text, therefore, not much by way of adult language. Language doesn’t make the list of reasons Dauntless received a T for Teen rating.
Sexual Content
There is no sexual content to speak of in Dauntless. Unless you come across another player being inappropriate in the chat or on voice chat, you won’t see or hear anything sexual. I was even impressed at the design of the costumes and armor. All of the female characters are tastefully dressed. There is some “mid-drift” here and there but nothing over the top, sexually.
Positive Message
Besides fun, the message of this game could be teamwork. Hunts are measurably easier with friends. It is also easier if you learn how to strategize your weapons and armor so that your team can work together in the best way to defeat the monsters. The “freemium” model for this game is par for the course for Epic Games since they’ve made so much money off of their “free” title, Fortnite. You will be asked by your kids if they can buy something within the game.
What Parents Should Know
Remember that this game is online. It is easier and more fun to fight monsters and level up when playing with other people. You can hunt alone or create a hunting party full of your friends but random matchmaking is the default mode for going out on a hunt. Kids should be a bit older or at least know how to handle themselves properly on the internet before playing games with strangers online. Talk to them about their behavior and that of others online before allowing them to play a game like Dauntless.
You should also be careful if your credit card number is accessible on your child’s game system or computer. The items that you can purchase for Dauntless give you a really fun edge in the game and look super cool so kids will want to buy them. Like in Fortnite, they sell a pass that gives you a bunch of content and bonus loot for defeating monsters. These are all appealing and will cause your kids to ask you over and over again if they can spend some money in the game.
Finally, keep an eye on screen time. I found myself wanting to play “just one more hunt” over and over again late into the night. It is easy to pour hours and hours into a game like Dauntless and not realize how long you’ve been playing. You can use built-in parental controls to set time limits or limit internet access to the game system or computer. Since the game is fully online, disconnection from the internet will make it impossible to play Dauntless.
I think Dauntless is a pretty good alternative to the battle royale shooter games that are so popular today. I even think some of us parents can get involved, play with our children, and flex those video game muscles we built playing so much Zelda when we were young.
Listen to this story on the Family Tech Update Podcast below:
Violence – 1
Language – 1
Sexual Content – 4
Positive Message – 1
Total Score – 7out of 20
(The higher the rating, the safer the game is for kids.)
ESRB Rating – M for Mature
The Game
You’re a soldier in a war against “The Authority.” You fight against human enemies and mutants both small and large. Your weapons are futuristic and powerful and cause violent gory death for all who cross your path. You choose between a male or female character and play as a “Ranger” with a suite that gives you special abilities. You are able to fire rapidly and kill the seemingly never-ending onslaught of enemy hoards that are thrown at you.
Rage2 is a chaotic semi-open world first person shooter. Fighting is nearly nonstop and the violence and gore is at epic levels. Gamers will like this game for the intense gameplay, simple story, and open world exploration. Missions often end with fighting some kind of boss, many times the boss is a gargantuan mutant creature who explodes into showers of blood and gore when killed.
This game gets an overall 7 out of 20 on the BecauseFamily parents guide. Here’s the break down.
Violence – 1 out of 5
The violence in Rage2 is extreme and gruesome. It may be considered over the top to the point of silly but I would consider it far too intense for younger audiences. The violence alone in Rage2 definitely earns the game the Mature rating from the ESRB. The story mode opens with intense combat. You see the explosion of heads and bodies as mutants kill your allies and you blast them in return. At one point you see a character that you identify as Ranger Jersey get killed by a giant mutant who bites of his head. The body is thrown, headless, to the ground and you then look through the first person view as your character picks up the headless body, examines its armor and then loots the armor for yourself. That pretty much sums up the brutality and intensity of Rage2’s violence.
Language – 1 out of 5
Every word on the list is in Rage2. The intense combat situations and battle hardened characters result in realistic adult language throughout game play. Mature language is also used during the brief moments of down time in which you communicate with non-player characters and receive new missions.
Sexual Content – 4 out of 5
There is no direct sexual content or nudity in Rage2. There are suggestive comments and innuendo as indicated by the description in the ESRB Rating. There are some strange scenes with men and women wearing only underwear and acting in some sort of sexual trance. It doesn’t result in sexual content, however, but in, not surprisingly, more killing.
Positive Message – 1 out of 5
It is hard to imagine a positive message coming from a game like Rage2. Set in a post-apocalyptic, war torn world, this game is basically just brutality and violence. You do lose some folks that you cared about but your response is vengeance. Some of the side quests and other missions seem gratuitous and meaningless. I can usually pull out some sort of redeeming quality from the stories in these games but Rage2 has such a short story mode and the side quests are near pointless. This makes it hard to find any more intention in the game than just driving around, killing mutants, and blowing stuff up.
What Parents Should Know
Rage2 is a game that is intended for older audiences. The profanity, violence, and innuendo are at R or NC17 rating levels. Parents should be aware of these ratings if their children are asking to play Rage2. Should you decide it is ok for your child to play this game, you should discuss the impact the gore and violence may have on them or kids younger than them. It is important, also, that parents remember that games with an open world component can be hard to step away from. There is often a sense that it is never complete. Gamers who have that desire to finish every game they start could end up pouring hours and hours into games like Rage2. You should also keep in mind that some of your kids’ favorite YouTubers and Twitch streamers are going to be playing this game.
Remember, also, that first person shooter games have been found to increase problems for kids with ADD or ADHD. The adrenaline that is released from the intensity of games that feature such combat can become a problem for kids if they don’t have a chance to release that adrenaline through physical activity. My goal with these reviews is to give you an idea of what a game is all about. Some games seem obviously adult oriented to many people and I think Rage2 is one of those games. If your child has you on the fence about whether or not to buy this game for them. Hopefully this article helps you with your decision.
Above are the highlights from my first day at CES. This day is a media-only event and features press conferences from major brands, a “trends to watch” presentation, and a pre-show floor event called “Unveiled.” In this video, we will hear some of the tech trends that are being discussed at CES this year and show you some of the kid/family tech that I’m excited to learn more about when the show floor opens. Keep tuning in to the blog, our YouTube channel, and our social media for more of the only tech blog covering CES exclusively to protect children and teenagers online.
Net Nanny features one of the strongest filters available, custom settings, time management, alerts, and much more. In this video, I walk you thought the NetNanny website and we discuss its pros and cons. I share some of the set up woes I experienced with NetNanny but why I think those have been updated.
Violence/Gore - 1 out of 5 Language - 1 out of 5 Sexual Content - 4 out of 5 Positive Message - 2 out of 5
The Game
It’s that time of year again. Time for another Call of Duty game. This one is a bit different, (more on that later) but it is a CoD game none the less. The last game in the series was set in WW2. This on is set in the not too distant future, the 2040s. There isn’t much of a storyline in Black Ops 4 but there is no shortage of gameplay depth and replay-ability. Your kids are sure to ask for this game for the Holidays but what should you say? Hopefully this brief guide will give you an idea of the content in Call of Duty Black Ops 4 so you can make a quality decision for your family.
Black Ops 4 has several game modes available. You can play missions related to each character. They are more multiplayer tutorials with narration than actual campaign type missions. There is a zombies mode with a few levels and different stories included as well. The most anticipated mode, however, is the Blackout mode which is a battle royale game setting similar to Fortnite or PubG. I wrote about Blackout a while back, before its release. Below, I will unpack the content in Call of Duty Black Ops 4 for you.
Violence/Gore (1)
It likely goes without saying that Call of Duty Black Ops 4 is loaded with violence and gore. Gunfights are realistic, (albeit a bit science fiction based) blood is abundant, and body parts (more like chunks of meat) fly when hit by grenade or bomb blasts. Honestly the violence in CoD Black Ops feels a bit like an over the top 80s action film. Or a modern Quinten Tarantino movie. The game celebrates killing your enemies in the most gruesome and creative ways possible. Weapons are a bit futuristic and feature ways to bounce explosives, cluster bomb, and drive remote detonators and turrets against your enemy.
The zombies mode is extra bloody with creatures ripping people apart who are chained to posts and body parts being flayed off with swords and blown off with firearms and other weapons. As you’d imagine, the zombies themselves are pretty gory looking with yellow glowing eyes and shriveled up skin. While multiplayer plays down the gore a bit, the blood spray and rag-doll effect is still more realistic than other popular shooter games.
There is a way to turn off the extra graphic content including language and user generated content but that setting isn’t protected by a password. In my book, if parental controls aren’t password protected they aren’t there at all.
Michael Prince – BecauseFamily.org
Content filters with no password protection.
Language (1)
This game is has plenty of adult language. Every word you would imagine being said during a firefight with bullets flying overhead and explosions surrounding you is yelled, muttered, said over the radio, and written out in subtitles throughout the small story sections of the game. Your drill sergeant type instructor barrages you with explicit insults as you progress through training in the story mode. Much of the dialog also discusses substance use and the celebration of violence and combat.
Sexual Content (4)
There currently isn’t any sexual content in Call of Duty Black Ops 4. The dialog contains a bit of sexual reference but much would go over kids’ heads if they noticed it at all. Multiplayer will contain user generated content and therefore you can expect more sexual innuendo and possible conversation in online game modes.
Positive Message (2)
I honestly struggle to find much positive message in this Call of Duty game. Extreme violence is celebrated and encouraged. You are driven to kill in creative and gruesome ways. There is a bit of comradery between the characters but you have so little story in the game that this message is not likely to come across well, if at all. Most of the gameplay is centered around multiplayer so this game isn’t designed to portray any kind of message.
Black Ops 4 is rated M for mature for “blood and gore, intense violence, strong language, and drug references.
Parents should be aware of the intense level of graphic violence that is in Call of Duty. It is not like the cartoon style of Fortnite or the lower graphic quality of PubG. The graphics are very good in this game, thus the level of intensity is increased, as is the level of realism. While there is no sexual content, there is also very little redeeming quality to the game since there isn’t even much of a storyline to explore a deeper meaning or message.
Multiplayer gaming opens up kids to communicate with people from all over the world. There is an element of anonymity that is felt when you play online but that is quickly lost as you build a friendship with people through experiencing this intense gameplay together. There are known cases of adult predators using these multiplayer environments to identify and groom their targets to later expand their relationship to social media messaging apps. This is one reason multiplayer gaming can’t be rated. The level of safety depends on those playing the game.
There is a way to turn off graphic content and language but it isn’t password protected. In my book, if parental controls aren’t password protected, they aren’t there at all. I would advise following the 17+ recommendations for Rated M games on this one. If you are thinking about allowing you younger kids to play Call of Duty Black Ops 4 you should be confident that they can handle such intense action and gore without it causing any lingering affects on them emotionally or psychologically.
Finally, first person shooter games with multiplayer modes are notorious for causing what is called “lost time,” in which players compete in level after level of the game without realizing how much time they’ve spent playing. When they are asked to stop or they have to move on for some reason they are often shocked at the amount of time that has passed, sometimes even getting angry at being asked to stop. I recommend setting screen time limits on your game systems like Playstation and Xbox as to create a built in system to help your kids keep better track of the amount of time they are spending playing video games.
