Candace had a topic over on the Green Dragon that is something also in my mind as a parent about Parental Controls (or lack of them) in LOTRO. We discussed this very thing briefly on Episode 2 of her podcast. Give that a listen to hear the controls already built in that we would use to provide a safe gaming environment for a younger child.
I do agree with Candace’s post as it discusses parents being responsible for their children’s online play, not Turbine. Naturally, Merric and I are the responsible parties to making sure Baby Hobbit isn’t abusing her gaming privileges. Her surprise check-ins would be needed to make sure the settings weren’t changed and she is still playing the game under the house rules.
I also absolutely agree that laying out the rules with the child before hand is necessary and to stick to them. My sister was the type to push the limits and rules my mom set for computer usage when we were younger and as a result she spent a lot of time with computer access revoked. My mom made it very clear that the reason she was grounded from the computer was because of her breaking such and such rule and she stuck to her guns.
Still there’s a part of me that sort of wants some extra controls in the game. Not because I’m lazy and want the game to police my kid for me but to sort of be a back-up for the child like my sister that always has to try to push to see how far she can get away with.
Channel Access:
There is already the option to turn off extra chat channels that I wouldn’t want my child to see and it is definitely a feature I would use. My main concern would honestly be voice chat over written chat.
I hear from my XBOX friends about all the kiddies playing with voice controllers and using language to make a sailor blush. This is an area I wouldn’t want my younger child to participate in and while voice chat is super useful in some situations, the little questing and adventuring that she will do should not require such extensive communication methods. Yes, I can check to not enable voice chat but I would really prefer it be just not operational at all for my child. A way I could block that stream of information or chose to unblock it if needed and I’m there to supervise.
Not that I’m saying LOTRO players are foul mouthed, in fact that’s not my experience at all but my job as a parent is to create a safe environment for my child – even online – and I tend to side with extra caution when I can.
Monitoring Playtime:
I agree wholeheartedly with Candace that I’m the one that says “It’s bedtime, get off the computer” and be the one to enforce it. However, it may cut back on fighting, bargaining and whining if the game just flipped off at 8pm all on it’s own. Not totally removing my authority but reinforcing it in a no-nonsense manner.
I know that World of Warcraft not only allows you to set up a cut off time but a complete schedule of when the child is allowed to play during the week. Again you are setting the rules and enforcing the time limits. All this becomes pretty meaningless if you’re willing to login and adjust willy nilly!
You also get weekly play-time reports via email of how long your child was playing. This sort of information would be useful to know if you noticed something like grades slipping to try to adjust and correct the play-time to something more balanced for the child.
Other Parental Controls
Sony has parental controls that blocks the child from using external sources like the forums as well as in game chat. They can limit them from just posting if they allow viewing. I can see that in some situations as some forums are pretty nasty at times but the LOTRO forums are pretty well monitored and even though there’s plenty of arguing going on there, it isn’t really anything I feel I would need to block. However, I would want to monitor her usage of it to make sure she’s not abusing the privilege and having the option to turn it off is just one more way to punish for improper behavior.
LOTRO Store
Limiting or removing access to the LOTRO store is the one parental control I couldn’t more emphatically agree with as a necessity. Not that I distrust my child or feel inadequate at trying to explain how using these things costs real money and could have an economic impact to the family. Simply because kids don’t think about stuff like this. A friend tells them that Moria is awesome and they click and poof have Moria doesn’t seem a big deal. Especially since it’s listed as costing 1000 Turbine Points and not in any sort of dollar figure.
I understand children can get to grasp the concept but honestly I hear so many stories from co-workers of their kids buying stuff from the iTunes store or buying some in-game purchase from an iphone/ipod touch app or purchased something with XBOX points. I don’t expect my child to be stealing my credit cards for the latest LOTRO content but I can see how slip ups from misunderstandings can be an accidental increased cost for parents.
Generally the conversation I hear from my cube neighbor at work is: “I’ve told him and told him if he wants to buy something he needs to ask me but all of a sudden I have a $20 bill and I don’t know where it came from!” Also very common is: “She guessed/knew my password and charged it through my account!” Again some of this is accidental and some of it is simply kids who like to push the limits.
It happens. It happens a lot more then we probably think and while I don’t believe Turbine’s goal is to trick kids into buying stuff through their store; having some barriers up to prevent their use without some sort of parental consent would put their mind at ease.
I am not familiar with the process DDO uses to purchase points/items from
the store but if it just had a new log-in barrier or a confirmation pin or something that might be enough to prevent them from making the mistake in the first place.
No one likes unexpected bills arriving at the end of the month.
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June 8, 2010 at 4:10 pm
Is it wrong that I didn’t read the article at first? I just went “BABY PICTURES!” and started to squee over cuteness.
Great in-depth information on parental controls. I like your spin on it. Controls are useful, but it’s still recognized as your an Merric’s responsibility to really know what’s going on with your child. Though I personally don’t think parental controls are needed, I do see how they can be useful. Especially the controls that cut off playtime. The only thing I really want to see with LotRO and the new model is the ability to have a more secure purchasing option in the store. Something that will keep your monthly subscription payment info and store payment information separate. Or perhaps the introduction of PayPal payments.
June 8, 2010 at 4:23 pm
I admit I totally abused the child topic to allow for me to share as many Baby Hobbit pictures as I could!
June 8, 2010 at 9:35 pm
I have to tell you – that hobbit kid is KEEEEEYUTE!
And I’m with both of you. Technology is no panacea for poor parenting but it brings us options that perhaps would be very difficult to manage otherwise.
I’d like to thank both of you for the discussion on the topic and did I mention the baby is beautiful? I’m sure I could find her a place at court…
June 8, 2010 at 11:18 pm
I love that little kid. She is so stinking cute, and you could swear she knew what a camera was for! haha
June 9, 2010 at 11:16 am
The big blue eyes and chubby cheeks sucked me in to this article. How cute is she!!
I agree with the parental controls. My boys like to play video games, but hubby and I limit them to one hour per day. Loosely translated, if they play on the computer they can’t play LOTRO (laptop) or on the Wii later on. Also, we have the computer set up in the living room where everyone can see what is going on on the monitor. At no time in thier lives will they be allowed to hole up in thier rooms with a computer at hand. Just won’t be happening.
When my boys get on LOTRO I have the chat shut off and as out of the way as I can make it. They are told they can not talk to anyone or join a kinship (good thing neither one can type yet). As they get older I’ll loosen the strings, but probably only allow them to be kin with folks I’m familiar with (or remove Soim from Nimrodel all together and have them restart with my kin on Landroval).
I’d like to see LOTRO come up with some time limits and steeper parental controls for alts geared towards our kids’ use (LOTRO light, anyone)? Now that they are implementing F2P the need for this will be even greater as more and more pre-teens will have access to playing the game.
June 9, 2010 at 2:32 pm
Very good post and cute pictures to boot!
I think the big problem with LOTRO is the in-game voice chat. The text chat channels aren’t too bad of a problem since it is very easy to report something you might see there. The GMs can look at the chat history and make quick decisions what to do. The voice chat on the other hand – as far as I know – isn’t recorded and it isn’t as easy for players to report verbal abuse.
The big problem is usually the open raids or PUGs, I’m especially thinking of some in the ‘Moors. I know that I’ve lead a couple of raids where a person had a bad potty mouth. As raid leader you can mute them, but I usually like to warn them first that you don’t know if there are little ears out there listening in. Frankly, its just not polite to use such langague regardless of the age of the listener.
I don’t have children myself, but some of my kinmembers have children ranging in age from seven to in their late twenties. Some of the pre-teens actually play with their parents in the group with them. Frankly, it is always fun playing with them since they don’t take the game as seriously as some of the older kids do!
Yet, the point is, know what your kid is doing and be involved with their play time as much as possible.
June 9, 2010 at 2:32 pm
I’m sure your post is up to the usual high standards, but dang woman you know better than to stick pictures of baby hobbit in and expect us to read it properly- so cute! Like the top one best
July 27, 2010 at 5:26 am
Parental control = you are the parent.
It is your job to unplug the computer.
It is not necessary for your child to be on the computer.
Also it is realy not necessary for your child to play games on the computer.
You are responsible for your child Period.
(The Law tells you this; Your responsibility till age 18)
I said period, end of story.
If you do not understand this you are an idiot.
August 3, 2010 at 7:08 am
LOTRO is not a children’s game. Frankly, it astounds me anyone under the age of fourteen plays it. Depending on the age of your child, I’m confused as to why you’re more worried about gaming time limits and what is said in the output channels, rather than the gore and violence present in the game. You don’t seem to have a problem with that. Really? Parents need to realize that not everything is kid-friendly, and it doesn’t have to be! That’s why I play LOTRO instead of WoW. I’m 22 years old, I’d rather interact with people my age, who are at my maturity level. Sorry, but no one wants to deal with ten-year-olds, or their mothers who are complaining about profanity being used on in-game voice chat. LOTRO has no obligation to accommodate a younger gaming audience that it was NOT designed for. Rather than letting your child play this game and expect it to make adjustments to your own convenience, try choosing a game that’s built with your kid’s age level in mind. LOTRO is NOT your nanny. Get over it.
September 28, 2010 at 12:48 am
Stumbled across this while looking for info on parental controls, so pardon the late comment.
@Reality: Do you suppose, just MAYBE, that parental controls might be a tool for parents to use, rather than a replacement for parenting? If someone asks a neighbor what their kid was doing after school, is that abdicating the parenting responsibility? If you call your kid before you get home from work to make sure they came straight home from school the way they were supposed to, is that abdicating your parental responsibility to the telephone?
Do you suppose it could be handy to, say, let the kids play for an hour or so, and have something which tells you whether they did or not? Can I do it without “parental controls”? Sure – I can log in every night, look at every one of my nephew’s characters, note their location, gold, and XP values, and then do it again the next night. Having something that tells me when he plays isn’t any less responsible on my part, it’s just easier. You might should un-jerk the knee and think about this a little more seriously before you start flinging words like ‘idiot’ about. Oh, and work on the grammar – when insulting someone’s intelligence, poor writing ruins the whole effect.
Now, for my part, what I’d really like is a limit on the store to, as was pointed out, separate subscription from store purchases. I’d rather not deal with paying for overenthusiastic misclicks or an “I forgot to check” before he buys something. I’m not especially worried about blood and gore – kids get more on Saturday morning, and I’m a realist when it comes to what they do and don’t see and know. But I’d hate to get hit in the wallet if it can be helped.
October 20, 2010 at 12:45 pm
Great article and pictures. And good comments. My 8 year old just started playing and likes LOTRO much better than kid-oriented games like FreeRealms and Clonewars online. It’s just a superior experience, and the F2P model is inviting rather than off-putting.
I am concerned about voice chat and group interaction, especially if he keeps interest beyond level 20. Right now we play together and it’s a blast. But I’m not comfortable letting him group with strangers and probably will restrict him to solo play when I’m not playing, too.