There and Back Again

Minecraft on Xbox 360. My son is on the left and I am on the right. I am looking at his pet Iron Golem (he told me his name, but I cannot remember it now) As mentioned , my son watches many Minecraft videos on YouTube. During this December holidays, we have given him more time to play games on the iPad and Xbox. He is going to start Primary One in one week's time so we have been closing one eye to his game playing time (though I do drag him to the bookshop, to swimming and test his spelling once in a while). Nowadays, my son wants me to join him in his Minecraft games- both on the iPad and the Xbox. I have to admit that he is better at this game than him. He creates really amazing worlds in his games. I am really humbled when I see his creations.  He has named himself '8469 tryert'. His first online screen name / user name. I am looking at a trap he build. Unsuspecting villagers will walk and fall into the lava pit. He's a devious boy. He h...

My son has always been an avid Youtube viewer. I know some people frown on kids using any handheld devices. I addressed this in a previous blog . But of course, you cannot allow uncontrolled access on media like YouTube - there are simply too many adults who swear freely on their videos. When users criticise them on their use of profanities, they point out that Youtube is only available for 13+ users - as if it is okay for a 13 year old to use the 'f' word. As a parent, we need to try to fight back against these people and only allow safe videos for our children. Let's see what sort of things parents can do to help make YouTube safe for our children. Create a family account Create a Google family account so that you can control the account and us it to login YouTube. Once you have done that, you can create playlists, monitor the videos they watch and control who communicates with them. Only allow them to create their own accounts when they are older, preferably when t...

The kids playing Xbox 360 The other day, I chanced upon my son's Minecraft game. He had this underground home that was unbelievable. It had doors, a library and other things that a house might have. I was very impressed. After all, he is only six. I never thought that a six year old would actually build a library. I know he has been watching Minecraft videos, but I did not realise that learns anything from these videos. So today, I thought I wanted to take a look at his 'world'. He was swimming with his buddies (the children of my wife's friend) so I took the iPad and opened the game. I could not find his underground home, so I searched for it by entering a nearby hole. But I could not find it. Needless to say, I continued to poke around, hoping to find it. Eventually, I went deeper and deeper underground. And I got lost. And I fell into lava. Because it was set in creative mode, my avatar was not killed by lava. Instead I got stuck. Then I panicked. I spend t...