As a parent with a 5 year old, Minecraft has been very educational for her. She’s learned some brilliant spelling and keyboard skills, building hand-eye coordination, etc. plus Minecraft can be limited to just single player or private servers (I have a private server setup just for my family for example) so they won’t be interacting with inappropriate content or unvetted individuals
I’m much less happy about Fortnite for example, since that has random voice chat, is always online and forced Windows-only via anti-cheat
Minecraft doesn’t have many of those instant dope hits if you limit what servers they can play on, instead having them favor single player, as train seems to be doing. If you’re going to let them play, I think Minecraft is one of the best options.
You literally punch things and they drop stuff. It may not seem like much but kids at that age are very susceptible. There’s a reason why psychologists started getting involved in children entertainment.
Start by not having your 5 year old play video games, and certainly not online.
As a parent with a 5 year old, Minecraft has been very educational for her. She’s learned some brilliant spelling and keyboard skills, building hand-eye coordination, etc. plus Minecraft can be limited to just single player or private servers (I have a private server setup just for my family for example) so they won’t be interacting with inappropriate content or unvetted individuals
I’m much less happy about Fortnite for example, since that has random voice chat, is always online and forced Windows-only via anti-cheat
Being exposed to other people is not the only problem with kids playing videogames. It’s mostly the instant-dopamine.
Minecraft doesn’t have many of those instant dope hits if you limit what servers they can play on, instead having them favor single player, as train seems to be doing. If you’re going to let them play, I think Minecraft is one of the best options.
You literally punch things and they drop stuff. It may not seem like much but kids at that age are very susceptible. There’s a reason why psychologists started getting involved in children entertainment.
Best to get them desensitized to dopamine when they’re young. Less disappointment when they’re older.