Parents, take control of your game console

Video game consoles used to be just for playing games. And while my kids do play games on our Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 3 (yes, I have all three — it’s one of the necessities for being a tech journalist), an equal amount of time is now spent watching TV shows and movies via Netflix and Amazon Instant Video.

Just this week, Sony announced the addition of Hulu Plus and Crackle for its Playstation Network and Microsoft is adding Nickelodeon, NHL and ESPN, including 24/7 live stream. In fact, game consoles are the most common way to watch Internet content on TVs, according to Leichtman Research Group. So it’s more important than ever for parents to get a handle on what type of content kids can access through the game consoles.
All three major video game systems offer some level of parental controls, protected by a password or code. Parental controls help you restrict access to games based on their content rating and manage other potential problem areas, such as web browsing, chat and purchases (Nintendo Wii, Sony PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360 have online stores for transactions, such as buying games and renting movies). You can create individual accounts for each of your children if you want to give different levels of access or one account that covers them all.
The ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) offers clear, detailed instructions for setting up parental controls on each of the three game systems. Or check out the information provided by your game console’s manufacturer: Nintendo Wii, Sony PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Xbox 360.

Online activity
All three consoles can be set up to connect to the Internet — whether to surf the web, play multiplayer online games or chat and receive messages. And all three let you simply turn the Internet access on and off. But each has a very different set of online features. So how do you make sure your kids don’t browse to off-limit sites or use other online features inappropriately?
Xbox 360 uses a free service called Xbox Live for downloading games and renting movies. Upgrading to an Xbox Live Gold account (starting at $5 per month) lets you play games online with friends, video chat, watch live TV, stream movies from Netflix and HBO GO and more.

Read More:  at online games news: USA Today

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