The range of digital games is large. As a parent, you should pay attention to what the legal age restriction is for games . This can often be recognized by a colored USK label. It is better if you know more about your child’s favorite computer games. In order to be able to assess whether a game is suitable for your child, offers such as the Player’s Guide NRW . Parents have free access to numerous educational reviews and game descriptions of the most popular games here.
The information offered by the “Fachstelle für Jugendmedienkultur NRW” helps parents understand what their child is playing or would like to play on the computer, game console or smartphone. With the help of the filter and search function, numerous games can be displayed and found via the categories genre, the USK classification or the educational age rating. The game experience is described in detail so that you can easily understand it. The games described are tested and evaluated by children and young people for this purpose. In addition, media education experts evaluate the level of difficulty, content, and addiction potential. This results in an educational age recommendation for each game.
In addition, you will find articles and contributions about gaming and media culture on the site under the menu item “Family”. On the YouTube account of the NRW Game Advisor , there are Let’s Play videos and tutorials, for example, on youth protection settings for individual games.
The Fachstelle für Jugendmedienkultur NRW would like to support parents and guardians with its services in the area of contemporary media education. In addition, the NRW gamers’ guide serves to dispel the reservations and insecurities of many parents regarding computer and online games and to educate them about topics relating to gaming and the media. Since the USK and legal regulations are not comprehensive enough, the NRW Player’s Guide attempts to supplement them and enable children to use the net safely. As a publicly funded project, Spieleratgeber NRW is not allowed to advertise individual games, which is why the descriptions are kept largely neutral.
Even though the games are tested and evaluated by children and young people themselves, every child’s experience is different – even regardless of age. While some can process certain content well, other children may still be overwhelmed. For parents of younger children, it is recommended to play and try out the games together for the first time. It is even better if you try a game before you play it together with your child.
The website Spieleratgeber NRW offers a lot of information, but seems a bit confusing and overloaded here and there. The range of games is so huge that not every game appears in the database.
As an alternative or supplement to the services offered by Spieleratgeber NRW, the website spielbar.de also offers neutral pedagogical assessments of numerous games and articles on the topics of gaming and media.
