HACKER Q&A
📣 throwaway853211

How


Hi HN,

I’m not a gamer. My five year old has become interested in Minecraft through his friends. It seems safe, but as I didn’t grow up with video games during my childhood I’m kind of in unknown territory for myself here.

Have any parents successfully navigated giving video games to kids? (While still ensuring they learn what they need to, and are successful in school etc)

My fear is that my kid gets addicted and sucked into this thing and loses all interest in anything else. It sounds silly perhaps but it’s a legitimate concern as a parent.

Anyways would love to hear any approaches that worked for you.

Thanks!

  👤 superchroma Accepted Answer ✓
I worry that kids are not given on-ramps to greater things by very carefully constrained games like Minecraft (and CoD, Battlefield, etc.) not having a great modding experience.

I grew up with Warcraft 3, Jedi Knight, a moddable block building title etc. All very mod friendly. This prompted me to learn to 3D model, edit images, etc.

👤 paktek123
One approach is to try to limit their time to avoid obsession. As with many things, in moderation you see the best benefits. The kid is not going to like it at first but will learn discipline to be able to enjoy other stuff besides Minecraft.