Is The Wildly Popular Game ‘Among Us’ Safe For Your Child?

Minecraft, Animal Crossing, Pokemon GO, and now, ‘Among Us’. What do all of these have in common? They’re all games popular with young kids and teenagers. This article uncovers the reasons why “Among Us’ is popular with tweens and teens. It will also help you understand whether this game is safe for your child and what you can do to help your troubled teen who might be addicted to games.

‘Among Us’: The Digital Escape Room

‘Among Us’ is a digital game played by users 10 years old and above. This game first came into existence in 2018 and since then has become wildly popular among younger people. The premise behind this game is that there’s an impostor amongst crew members on a ship. The goal of the crew is to find out who the impostor is. The crew and impostor can be any player but the position of each member is unknown. The only person who knows their real identity is the individual player. So, for example, if you’re a crew member, this is only known to you. Other players may choose to identify you as an impostor. Likewise, if someone’s an impostor, the crew can choose to identify that person as a crew member rather than an impostor, thereby putting everyone in the ship in danger.

Among Us: The Benefits and Harms

Before we talk about the harms and benefits of Among Us, please remember that if your troubled boy is addicted to gaming, then they may need counseling and structure. This is something a therapeutic boarding school like Liahona can help you with. It’s also important to remember that with COVID and the stay at home orders that have been passed, children will spend more time playing games since they can’t go out. That’s where being aware of the games that they’re playing can be helpful. That being said, here are some of the benefits and harms of this game.

#1. Your Teen Might Jeopardize Your Credit Card Information

Among Us is a free game and that’s why the game is so popular with children. But the game does advertise for upgrades that aren’t free. This could lead to your teen jeopardizing your credit card information in order to upgrade their account and access to different content. This is an important aspect to keep in mind as your teen plays this game.

#2. Your Teen is Ultimately Playing A Game That Centers Murder

One of the key aspects of this game is having gamers identify the impostor or hide their identity if they’re the impostor. The impostor is supposed to have murdered someone and is hiding their identity. While the game isn’t very explicit, your child might be killed in the game or might watch someone else get killed.

#3: Your Teen Has Access to Unmonitored Chats

The benefit of this game is that players can chat with other players. While they have the option to make their group chats private so that only those that they’ve added as close friends can chat with them, the game does emphasize being able to chat with many players who might not be close friends. This might lead to your child being exposed to explicit language or information that you wouldn’t like them to be exposed to. Make sure that your child is in private mode if you would like to limit who can chat with them.

Age-Appropriate Content and ‘Among Us’

Due to the information provided, this game is appropriate for ages 10 and above. Make sure that as you let your preteen and teen play this game, that you monitor their use and are making sure that the right and safe people are playing with them.