There is a vast array of online games for kids covering everything from the educational, to the entertaining and also the rather shocking. As a parent, obviously my desire is for ‘little jimmy’ to spend his hours playing educational games while I am doing the laundry, washing the dishes or fashioning some sort of plumbing fix out of an old pair of tights (oh a mothers work…), but chances are he is going to find online games for kids that are far too mature for his tender age.
In my quest to find kids games online on his behalf I have accidently stumbled across some less than desirable options featuring the gory outcomes of torturous activities. Honest, I went back later to check. It is the sort of thing I think only his father should play, but there these games are, ready to find – and without an unsuitable content for innocent children warning. Whilst the contents of these games may accurately reflect what will happen to a person if you throw them down a mine shaft lined with spikes, it falls short of what I would consider educational. I had puzzles and memory games in mind, rather than anatomically correct carnage.
Truth be told, whilst educational games are all well and good – I have found that my little tykes prefer something familiar, and dare I say, more entertaining. My advice? Look for free online games for kids television programmes, stuff you know they like watching with narratives that you know they will throw themselves into. Not only is it easier to find than generic safe stuff online for kids to play, the kids are entertained for longer and you won’t have to worry that you will walk in on some on-screen carnage that you will have to ‘explain away’ in a nonchalant manner, hoping that there are no awkward questions. You can just get on with the cooking instead.