My 9yo daughter has a tablet with family link, so I can monitor what apps she wants to install. As the garbage games are mostly at the top free, she keeps asking for games that I reject, in most cases because it’s riddled with ads.
The Play Store has a section for kids, which seems to have better quality apps and games. Also thinking to subscribe to Play Pass so she can try out paid games.
Any other tips? Especially how to find good free / paid games. I don’t mind paying for good games.
Also I’m aware I can block ads using eg Pi Hole (already doing that) or sometimes putting it on airplane mode, but that’s not my point. I want to find and support quality games.
Usually, I find ports of PC Games best. I don’t know if they are suited for 9 year olds, but broken sword, baba is you or papers please are really good on mobile devices. Point and click in general is a very portable genre for mobiles.
The play pass might be the way to go, since the paid games are a lot better. There are also a lot of guides online for which games are good.
You can also look into games that are ports of old PC games, as well as emulators (which open up a whole new world of games)
Thanks, yes play Pass looks cool so far.
Also going to look at emulators. Thanks.
Play pass is a fantastic idea, made me discover a lot of awesome small little experiences
Yeah I like it so far. We also have xb gamepass which made me appreciate indie games much more.
How do you find apps included in play Pass though, do you know? Can only find lists on random websites, not on play store itself.
Once you’re a member it shows you a section in the app store. Unfortunately I’m not sure where to find a list before subscribing.
I’ve subscribed, and that section shows up. However it only shows games, not apps. Eg Tasker is included.
This guy (Nimble Thor) developed an app called Mini Review, I’ve used it frequently.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=minireview.best.android.games.reviews
Check him out on YT as well.
That’s cool. Downloaded! Thanks.
Emulation, geometry dash, Minecraft.
I am on the exact same boat as you. 9yo daughter keeps asking to download a bunch of crap with in app purchases or ads. The problem is that there’s so much crap for mobile. I almost never play anything on my phone, but her at her age and the current times of short attention span being bored for longer than a second seems.like a taboo, she needs to have stuff on her phone, even though we have a Switch at home with loads of good quality games.
It’s just the way it is.
I agree there’s a lot of crap, and it takes some time and conversation. Lots of tips in this topic as well. Eg Play Pass looks pretty cool so far, and I’m going to look at F Droid and installing an emulator.
I’m also explaining to her why I reject some apps. She seems to understand it better and better.
I’m also going to look at using Tasker to set it to airplane mode on all apps except Play Store and Chrome.
In case nobody’s said it already, it’s awesome you’re taking an active role in teaching your daughter media literacy. 🙂
Thank you!
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Fdroid –> unciv
Civilisation clone. Really fantastic if she enjoys that sort of thing.
https://f-droid.org/categories/games/
Also I don’t know anything about adblockers but I was lucky enough to have a device supported by www.divestos.org and I think the OS defaults to a DNS that ignores ads somehow. But I’m not sure! I just know I get WAY less spammy ads than friends do :P
Thanks for civ tip!
I’ve got pi hole as DNS ad blocker. Works great.
Sweet!
If you like tech and if she might too, there are coding games for the desktop https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/best-programming-games/
And for the mobile device https://blockly.games/Have fun!
https://www.darkpattern.games/
I have not extensively used this site but it seems to have some good pointers
So maybe check with them there first, then install
Thanks, interesting site! Bookmarked.
I loved that this one explain each of these dark patterns too
You could try installing gamesnacks.com as a pwa on their phone. They have a bunch of little games that I assume children would like.
Play pass is really good for games but my kids still constantly want shitty ad filled ones tbh.
Setting up adguard DNS worked really well but it can break games if they’re dependent on ads. Which isn’t a bad thing in my opinion.
Yeah agreed, my kids have accepted that stuff doesn’t work if they rely on ads, and they are fine with it (after some initial batyles).
I’m doing some scraping on the playstore, there is few stuff that has no ads nor in app purchases
I posted a few here on https://lemmy.fbmac.net/c/free_android_games
I’ve made it a link that works from all instances : /c/free_android_games@fbmac.net thanks!
Love it! Subscribed
Tbh I gave up on mobile gaming about 8 years ago. Got so tired of sifting through the crud looking for gems.
Netflix offers free Android games with no ads too. If you have ad subscription it might work
Sorry, no Netflix here. Thanks anyways.
One thing you might need to pay attention to is your daughter would want to play the same game as their friends do.
You may want to reject games base on your criteria, but if your daughter feels isolated because she can’t play with her friends, that could be a bigger problem.
I’m not too worried about that tbh. It’s the same thing that when she gets a mobile phone it will be very limited, only call, text and messaging. No social media until she’s 18. Thanks though for checking.
That… seems a bit too extreme, I honestly don’t think you can achieve that… unless you get her a dumb phone and assuming she never gets her own by her own means.
Working with your kids to have a decent social media experience? That I can see!
With Family Link everything can be locked down.
Yes it may sound extreme but based on The Social Dilemma and presentations at our school from people who did a lot of research into this topic, I’m going to go with their recommendation to keep them off social media until 18. Probably won’t be easy indeed.
Good luck. We tried that rule too, it has led to so much stress and fighting. I’m certainly not suggesting to not try and hold the line. I’m just wishing you luck with it.
I don’t even see how it’s possible to stop someone from using social media until they’re 18 unless they truly don’t want to.
After watching The Social Dilemma and seeing that people who worked high up at eg Facebook also didn’t want their kids on there, I’m going to try to do the same.
