Help neurodivergent children stay safe while playing games

Children with vulnerabilities are twice as likely to encounter online trolling than those without vulnerabilities. This could be due to various reasons, including to responding to something that another person then misinterprets.

The more time any child spends playing online multiplayer games, the more likely they are to encounter negative behaviours.

Many neurodivergent children struggle to accurately judge another person’s behaviour. For example, if someone is upset with them for a game they played together and says “well done” sarcastically, a neurodivergent child might take it literally.

This leaves them open to greater risk for misunderstanding the intentions of those wanting to do them harm. A groomer, for instance, will seek to build their trust before asking anything harmful.

As such, it’s important to discuss the difference between an actual friend and someone they play games with online.

Neurodivergent children might fixate on a certain game, spending hours playing or watching videos and streams about it.

Long gaming sessions without breaks can affect their physical and mental wellbeing. These sessions can impact their sleep, their eyes and how active they are.

In turn, children might develop medical issues such as chronic aches and pains which can further impact wellbeing.

Loot boxes and in-game purchases where the contents are unknown can resemble gambling and may encourage young people to gamble.

In general, vulnerable children are more likely to visit gambling sites as well. If a child has free reign of in-game spending, they might struggle to manage purchases for virtual items that have little pay-off.

Children with autism or ADHD spend twice as much time playing video games than other children.

Whether they hyperfixate on a single game or struggle to pull themselves away from gaming in general, neurodivergent children are also more likely to become addicted to playing video games.

To help them socialise safely while gaming, talk about what is and isn’t safe to share.

Explain that it is good to share what they are interested in. However, when it comes to personal details like their address and where they go to school, it’s best to keep these private as not everyone online is who they say they are.

Some video games — especially story-driven games — deal with tough or realistic issues. As such, this serves as a good learning opportunity for children.

It Takes Two, for example, deals with the issue of divorce while Knights and Bikes deals with the passing of a parent.

Other games might feature violence, sex and different forms of gender representation. So, it’s important to talk about these things in the context of the wider world to help them understand the difference between fantasy and reality.

Talk with children about the potential risks they might come across from gaming online. Neurodivergent children often struggle to recognise harm unless they have previous experience. So, talking about what the risks could look like can help them avoid harm. This guide was designed to help them do this.

As a part of this, discuss coping strategies such as reporting content, blocking users and telling you about the risks they’ve seen. Explore this guide for parents to support with this.