Teenage Friendly Gaming Groups (PS5 or Switch)
Discussion
Not even sure what I'm asking here but hoping for some help!
Our eldest daughter (15) enjoys Switch and PS5 games.
She doesn't attend school full time and her friend group is small and quite uninterested in video games.
There is neurodiversity in there. She's pretty switched on and sceptical around social media, time spent gaming etc. I think some social connection on shared interest could be a good thing though and I can see a bit of a challenge being a girl that's into gaming. She's playing likes of CoD and Battlefield a little more but been likes of Zelda etc.
The world of online gaming is a bit foreign to us (I played loads of games at same age but they involved swapping disks in the playground!) and I'm trying to help her understand how to find people or groups that are similar ages and have similar interests.
Reddit and Discord feel like common suggestions but where do you start? I've only really experience of Reddit and it can be an utterly terrible place. Her mum and I avoid social media as much as possible.
I guess in ideal world we'd like to be able to find people by region / age who at least claim to be in that region or age group but a few of the apps I've tried so far seem geared more towards adults.
Cheers for any ideas!
Our eldest daughter (15) enjoys Switch and PS5 games.
She doesn't attend school full time and her friend group is small and quite uninterested in video games.
There is neurodiversity in there. She's pretty switched on and sceptical around social media, time spent gaming etc. I think some social connection on shared interest could be a good thing though and I can see a bit of a challenge being a girl that's into gaming. She's playing likes of CoD and Battlefield a little more but been likes of Zelda etc.
The world of online gaming is a bit foreign to us (I played loads of games at same age but they involved swapping disks in the playground!) and I'm trying to help her understand how to find people or groups that are similar ages and have similar interests.
Reddit and Discord feel like common suggestions but where do you start? I've only really experience of Reddit and it can be an utterly terrible place. Her mum and I avoid social media as much as possible.
I guess in ideal world we'd like to be able to find people by region / age who at least claim to be in that region or age group but a few of the apps I've tried so far seem geared more towards adults.
Cheers for any ideas!
It might be an option to find streamers that she (and you) like on Twitch - the smaller communities are often friendly and 'sub(scriber) games' can mean playing online with other viewers, many of which are perfectly normal people with whom one might be able to play with 'off-stream' if/when one becomes friends in-game or via PSN/XBox network.
Some streamers will have discord servers also.
Some streamers will have discord servers also.
Not too much to add as I'm way too old to know about such things. Logically, when you do set her up online don't make it obvious she is a she. Have a masculine username. Sad thing to have to do though.
On the xbox and google platforms there are mechanisms in place to setup your child online that do offer some rudimentary safety stuff. Presumably PS5 and Nintendo have something similar?
Maybe asks some of your friends with similiar age kids that game if she can get involved?
Stating the obvious, but don't become friends with anyone online that you don't know. You have no idea if "Lucy 15yrs" is actually "Bob 45yrs who lives with his Mum".
Social media is so toxic in so many ways. As someone who had a few challenges growing up I'm so glad I didn't have to deal with it.
On the xbox and google platforms there are mechanisms in place to setup your child online that do offer some rudimentary safety stuff. Presumably PS5 and Nintendo have something similar?
Maybe asks some of your friends with similiar age kids that game if she can get involved?
Stating the obvious, but don't become friends with anyone online that you don't know. You have no idea if "Lucy 15yrs" is actually "Bob 45yrs who lives with his Mum".
Social media is so toxic in so many ways. As someone who had a few challenges growing up I'm so glad I didn't have to deal with it.
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