Safely adding a child

[Groucho]

Hi all,

I have a 10-year old who lives with her mother. I would like to create an account for her so we can play games together, but I am concerned about other people interacting with her. Is there some setting where she would only be allowed to play with me?
Thanks.

[N_Faker]

BGA is already very child safe, as a publicly available internet site.

Is there some setting where she would only be allowed to play with me?

There is not.

[wendey]

This place is a very child safe.
192.168.0.1

[Jest Phulin]

While this place is a lot better than many sites, it still is a public area on the internet. I can understand Groucho's concerns.

[N_Faker]

Also, in the future. You probably do not want to make a public post, outlining the very information, that may attract the unwanted attention you want to avoid.

[Liallan]

This is one of those comments that some people will applaud me for and some will hate me for... but the internet is not always the safest or most private place in the world. I think a 10 year old is old enough to start learning how to stay safe on the internet, and to ignore the bad language and such. I would suggest this site is not exactly the worst behavior on the internet. It's not 100% child-safe, but relatively speaking, it's not bad. And in a lot of ways, she probably would not see much of anything here that she won't run across just out in the world in general. I don't think you can protect kids from everything.

And remember that you can see what everyone on here does - you can go into anyone's profile and see what games they've been playing and with whom. So if she's only supposed to be playing with you, it's not like she can hide it if she's playing games with other people, right? You could even get to know some people and make an approved friend list.

(Does the hotseat mode work for just a random person on your own account, as opposed to the other person having to have their own account? I know they made some changes since the time that was free and in beta.)

[RicardoRix]

There is no such feature.

Just because this a public website does not make it inherently safe. However, by experience, the users here will tell you that this is safer than an anonymous chat room.

I would have thought the 'easiest' solution to this would be to have an account setting to ONLY allow reciprocal friends invites to and from games. You can then set this up for her. You could ask for this in the suggestions forum, but don't hold your breath.

[N_Faker]

Just because this a public website does not make it inherently safe. However, by experience, the users here will tell you that this is safer than an anonymous chat room.

Being a public website is what makes it unsafe. No matter that, this site is for playing board games first and foremost, chatting is secondary.

Whatever negative interactions between players there are, are usually only complaints on slow or poor play with a few swearwords thrown in. The vast majority of players are quite civil, and most games will usually play and conclude with nothing more than "gl hf" and "gg", or nothing at all.

[Caffe Latte]

I might appear a bad parent but all my kids are playing here since about 6 years old. To be honest, I have never ever even considered classifying this site as dangerous for any of them.

Of course, I accept if the child is limited by health, also parents sometimes would keep them pampered till pension (kids), and it is not my business but it reads so weird someone seriously discuss board game site (moderated, monitored etc) to be dangerous for kid of any age.

Apologies for speaking uninvited. I wish I was at least 1/10 as caring parent as you are