What Is Gacha Life? Is It Safe For Kids?
If you're looking for games that allow creativity and expression to flow, Gacha Life is your go-to. However, due to the availability of ads and in-app purchases in the game, you, as a parent, might now begin to wonder, is Gacha Life safe for children?
Don't worry; this blog contains everything you need to know about Gacha Life. Let's begin!
What is Gacha Life
Developed and released by Lunime in 2018, the Gacha Life app is a game with role-playing and adventure genres. It is suitable for kids aged 9+. Though the game is rooted in Japan, it is available in many countries and several languages. The game is free to play and available on different platforms, including Android and iOS.
What Can Kids Do on Gacha Life
Gacha Life is a fun-filled game with amazing features that will make players always come back for more. Here are some things you should know:
Activities | Risks |
---|---|
Get into Gacha Heat! Gacha Heat is content generated by Gacha users to attract other players' attention. | When your children view this Gacha Heat content, it can expose them to a series of dangers, including the desire for sexual intercourse, sexual aggression, addiction, etc. |
Dress up Characters What draws over 100 million members to this app is its anime theme. Players can dress up their unique characters to their liking in this game. | Some malicious players may create characters that are either sexy or scary, causing your child to experience porn and fear. The latter could even lead to sleep disturbances and persistent anxiety for young children. |
Create Scenes in Studio Mode Gacha Life's studio mode with a skit maker that enables players to create their scenes and stories using different characters and dialogue. | Highly engaging in stories can make children want to return repeatedly, thereby raising the risk of addiction. |
Win Gems in Mini Games There are 8 mini-games in Gacha Life where players aim to collect as many virtual gems as possible to stay competitive in the race. | When your kids lose the game, they probably make in-app purchases to buy gems, leading to unauthorized spending or borrowing. |
Make Friends with NPCs Gacha also has a Life mode, which includes a chat community that enables players to connect with NPCs in a bid to improve their gaming experience. | These NPCs sometimes ask gifts in the chat which also can lead to in-app purchase. Moreover, as a player, your child can only listen to what NPCs say and cannot interact with NPCs. It is so boring! |
Tips for Safe Gaming on Gacha Life
Now that you're aware of some of the negative consequences of the game, let's look at ways to keep kids from the risks.
Explore Positive Games on Gacha Life
Indeed, in this game, I found an educational games in the "Mini Games" section - "1chi's Math". If your children are involved in it, they can practice the basic mathematics that they learned in school. And this game-based learning process is strongly attractive to kids.
Set up Guidelines and Rules
If your children won't abstain from playing the game, it is best to set up guidelines and rules before they start playing Gacha. Talk to them about the dangers of ads and other risks associated with the game. Let them know how to keep safe while playing the game. Also, set rules on the number of times they can play the game in a day or week.
Use Parental Controls
Gacha Life, if not regulated, can cause addiction, which can later result in poor academic performance, loneliness, anger, and so on. To balance games and other positive activities, using a parental control app is one of the effective ways.
With AirDroid Parental Control, you can control the amount of time your kid accesses Gacha Life in a day. What's more, its "Screen Mirroring" feature enables you to monitor what your child's doing online.
Restrict Gacha Heat Videos
As stated above, Gacha Heat is the most harmful content in Gacha Life, and it is also the parent's greatest concern. So, regarding this, what can you do?
Generally, content creators spread the Gacha Heat content through YouTube. Therefore, you can set up YouTube parental controls, or turn on restricted mode to filter potentially mature content, including Gacha Heat.
What Parents Said about Gacha Life?
Here are some Gacha Life reviews from Common Sense Media:
All in all, Gacha Life is not suitable for kids if you do not apply safety measures. Although it provides great fun games, some players use this platform to create explicit videos (Gacha Heat) and characters, which is not good for both kids and teens.
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