Digital Citizenship

E-Safety - Call of Duty

I am sure at some point you will have heard of Call of Duty (or CoD as it is often referred to) and with a brand new game due out in time for Christmas, it is undeniably one of the most successful gaming franchises of all time, especially with children.

It does however have a strict PEGI 18+ age restriction, and for some very good reasons! The most obvious of these is the huge amount of very realistic violence and gore in the game, which really cannot be emphasised enough, is not for the faint-hearted! The game also contains a number of very adult and disturbing themes, such as terrorism, torture and the use of chemical weapons to name but a few. The online multiplayer mode has also come under a lot of flack in the past for its use of foul language and ‘bullying’ of other players by strangers. Click here to read a detailed PDF guide that outlines all of this in further detail… but the bottom line is that this really is NOT A GAME FOR CHILDREN and should not be played under any circumstances until they are adults in their own right.

Another risk to watch out for is children’s exposure to the game through watching older siblings play, or more commonly by watching the millions upon millions of videos of others playing the game on Youtube. As I am sure you already do, please keep a careful look out for any videos being viewed on video sharing sites, as ‘computer game violence’ and ‘cartoon violence’ can often sneak through age filters.

If you have any further questions, about this or any other e-safety aspects, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Mr Adkins
Head of Digital Learning