xbox live users (1 Viewer)

[Galileo]

My son (13 yo in two weeks) wants to get an xbox live gold subscription. I really know very little about it other than it seems to open up the whole social aspect of multiplayer gaming. It looks like there is also access to some free games every month. A couple questions...

1. Can a 13 yo have an account...or would I need to make the account? I seem to recall already creating some type of account when we first set up the xbox one.

2. Are any of the free games rated MA? We do not allow him to own these games. Would they become available to him?

3. Piggybacking on 1 and 2...If I have the account, and there is MA content available, are parental controls available? Any means to monitor activity?

4. What kind of trouble could he get into with this? Same types of issues as with any social media? He is a pretty darn good kid, and I would like to keep it that way. He is growing up fast.

Anything else I should be considering in making a decision?

 

[TLEF316]

Wow

 

[RealReactions]

Sound like a strict parent... pretty sure at 13 i was playing GTA 3 on playstation 2 and i turned out fine.

 

[Insein]

You can pretty much let him rip. Check in on him from time to time to make sure he's not dropping f bombs every five seconds. He's going to hear some of the worst language imaginable by his peers (other 6-19 year olds mostly).

You can also ask him to not use the game chat and just play.

 

[Mr. Ected]

My son (13 yo in two weeks) wants to get an xbox live gold subscription. I really know very little about it other than it seems to open up the whole social aspect of multiplayer gaming. It looks like there is also access to some free games every month. A couple questions...

1. Can a 13 yo have an account...or would I need to make the account? I seem to recall already creating some type of account when we first set up the xbox one.

2. Are any of the free games rated MA? We do not allow him to own these games. Would they become available to him?

3. Piggybacking on 1 and 2...If I have the account, and there is MA content available, are parental controls available? Any means to monitor activity?

4. What kind of trouble could he get into with this? Same types of issues as with any social media? He is a pretty darn good kid, and I would like to keep it that way. He is growing up fast.

Anything else I should be considering in making a decision?

I believe there are parental controls. If you still need me to, I will check tomorrow. We signed up our 12 y.o. for it and have had no problems. I also believe that most of what they are doing is playing with their games online, so if you control their games, you should be all set.

 

[Galileo]

Sound like a strict parent... pretty sure at 13 i was playing GTA 3 on playstation 2 and i turned out fine.

My wife is a little more hung up on this than I am, but I am fine with respecting her wishes to prohibit these types of games. There are plenty of other games our kids can can enjoy...and other more worthy battles I can have with my wife.

 

[Rustoleum]

You can create a main account and then set up a "child" account off it. Both have access to "LIVE" but I believe only the main can download the free games.

You'll want to set it up to always key in the password for the main acccout (a colossal PITA) or else he could just switch to it at will. Also, if you have a credit card tied to your account (I prefer to just uses prepaid cards because our 360 account got hacked once and I don't want to have to change credit card numbers again) you probably want the password anyway.

My son (14) mostly plays Destiny or solo/small group play games. He (of his own volition) generally only plays with personal friends because he got tired of listening to the trash talk and idiocy on the chat channels for things like Call of Duty. (As already mentioned, most games it is pretty easy to mute or not join the chat channels.)

 

[bigmarc27]

The main thing is he's going to hear all kinda of vulgarity. I'm sure he's hearing at school anyway, but it's constant.

 

[RealReactions]

The main thing is he's going to hear all kinda of vulgarity. I'm sure he's hearing at school anyway, but it's constant.

I know there is a setting somewhere, where that you can't hear anyone talk unless you are friends with them. This was back on 360 i have no clue where it is on the one. And truthfully i only talk #### when I'm drunk playing call of duty of NHL. Im 21 too but most of the time its after a lacrosse game and if i don't go home with a girl just #### around on the xbox. But the vulgar is 95% kids his age on all of these things. Its mostly little kids that are cursing left and right and have no clue what half of it even means.

 

[Officer Pete Malloy]

Your kid is going to hear from a lot of people that have had sex with your wife.