XBox Live: Tips for Parents that Have Children Using Online Gaming

Xbox Live is a unique online gaming experience for your Xbox console. Children are getting into video games more than ever now and Xbox Live is no different. You simply connect your Xbox or Xbox 360 to a high speed internet connection and you are able to play a game against another person anywhere in the world. Xbox live is great for adults and even families with the right game. A silver membership comes with your console and costs you nothing. You can also purchase a Gold membership that will allow you to talk to other members while you play. My husband and I recently purchased and Xbox 360 and a Gold membership for Xbox Live. Listening to young children on the Xbox Live for a few days has inspired me to write this article. Read on to hear more about my experience and warning to parents.

When you sign up for Xbox Live you are instructed to choose which one of the "game rooms" that you want to sign up underneath. There are 4 different rooms that you could choose. One was a Family Room and another was an Underground area where anything goes. My husband chose the Underground to play his game Call of Duty 4. Imagine my amazement when I heard kids as young as 7 and 8 cussing like sailors. As if this was not bad enough, this is when my husband was playing at like 2:00AM. Xbox Live recently announced an update that will be available for all Internet attached Xbox consoles. It is a parental control that will allow you to limit the amount of time that your child can play a day, a week, or a month. The controls will be blocked by a password that you set. If you play the console, you can suspend the controls so that they will not affect your child's playing clock. Here are a few more important rules that you should follow if your child is going to be using Xbox Live.

1. You sign them up

You should complete the signing up process and make sure that you select the family room. It is my understanding that you cannot change this it has been selected and your child will only matched with other players' that are also in the family room. This should reduce the amount of language and trash talking.

2.Listen in