nope, in many games there's no chat and any interaction between players is only within the rules of the game. it's very safe. you cannot stalk a kid or even know its a kid.
somebody mentioned nintendo platform, see that for example
Fair enough, but I think creativity can usually escape the box and make it possible to communicate within the limitations imposed by the game.
And if not, then what even is the value of playing online as opposed to locally with AIs?
If children want to play together with their friends, isn't it much better to spin them a Minecraft server or such for friends they know from real life instead of playing games limiting them by "very narrowly specific interactions" anyway?
No, there is no way. Yes it is hard to tell if it's ai. But humans play different. And also this is why anticheats exist.
> If children want to play together with their friends, isn't it much better to spin them a Minecraft server or such for friends they know from real life instead of playing games limiting them by "very narrowly specific interactions" anyway?
compared to roblox, sure. who would even argue against that?
but there are many games where it really don't matter. it's probably most games... car racing sim... football sim... strategy like civilization...
But most games have unrestricted chat, aside from maybe wordlist filters ...
Wow, runescape, call of duty, battlefield, ... Didn't and don't they still all have basically unrestricted chat? Sure they might not be expressly marketed to kids, but everyone I knew was playing wow and runescape in elementary school with no issues.
somebody mentioned nintendo platform, see that for example