Gaming safety for kids and teens

Gaming is where Australian kids socialise — for most it’s positive, creative and genuinely social. The risks cluster in three places: contact from strangers through chat, pressure to spend, and scams targeting young players’ accounts and items. All three are manageable.

Strangers and chat

• The base rule, repeated early and often: people met in games are strangers, whatever they call themselves. Real name, school, suburb and photos stay private.
• Red flags to teach: anyone who asks to move the chat to another app, asks for photos, offers gifts (skins, currency) with strings attached, or asks them to keep the friendship secret.
• Grooming in games is real and reported in Australia. If anything sexual or pressuring occurs, don’t delete the chat — screenshot it and report to the game, the platform, and the ACCCE.
• Use the game’s settings: many popular games let you disable open voice/text chat, restrict chat to friends, or use kid-safe servers.

Spending: loot boxes, skins and “just this once”

• Loot boxes and randomised item purchases mimic gambling mechanics — the rush is the point. Australia now classifies games with gambling-like content more restrictively, but the household defence is simpler: no saved card, no spending.
• Remove stored payment methods from the child’s account. Purchases then require you, every time.
• If you allow spending money, make it visible: gift cards with a fixed balance teach limits better than an open credit line.
• Agree the rule before the first request, not during the tantrum.

Scams targeting young gamers

• “Free skins/currency” generators are always scams — they steal account logins or payment details.
• Account “trading” and “duplicating items” tricks: the item goes, nothing comes back.
• Discord DMs claiming to be game moderators demanding “verification” — real staff never DM for passwords.
• Protect the account itself: unique password plus two-factor authentication. A stolen gaming account can mean years of purchases gone.

Healthy play habits

The research consensus: what matters is not raw hours but impact — sleep, schoolwork, friendships, mood. Agree schedules through your console or device controls (our parental controls guide covers setup), keep gaming out of the hour before sleep, and stay interested in what they play. The single best safety tool is a parent who occasionally says “show me how this game works”.