This motivates teens to focus on their peers in decision-making situations that involve risky behaviour. Research shows several areas of the brain make adolescents more sensitive to the rewards of peer relationships than adults. Many players are introduced to apps such as Episode by siblings or friends, and are enticed by the excitement they offer. At this stage of development, peer relationships are highly rewarding. A 12+ rating offers little guidance to parents, and ratings overall don’t seem to deter children from playing. That said, players of Episode are often impressionable older children and teens. On the Apple App Store, the game is rated 12+ and on Google Play it’s rated “Mature”. On the Common Sense Media website, parents have given Episode a parental advisory rating of 14+, whereas kids have rated it suitable for ages 13+. The app trap: how children spend thousands online This is also where players can unwittingly spend huge amounts of money. This reinforces inappropriate reactions to events. Yet, the story was not removed, and the author did little to address the backlash.Īnother concerning aspect of the game is that in many situations, users have to pay money to make morally correct decisions, yet reckless choices are free. One story regarding sexual consent raised uproar with users, who were concerned at the poor moral message of a young female character being “blind drunk” and not consenting to a sexual liaison with an older male character. And while there are more than 12 million creators, there is little content regulation, even when the Episode community expresses concern. On inspection, there are several issues with the app.įirst, storylines can be written by anyone, even those aged 13-17. Many of these glorify adultery and are potentially promoting reckless decision making, pettiness and unkind acts. What your child engages with onlineĮpisode features numerous storylines about sexual discrimination, underage sex and pregnancy. A number of parents have voiced concerns on Common Sense Media, a leading source of entertainment recommendations for families. While most storylines focus on romance and high school relationships, many have raised alarm bells in parents. Readers can choose from a list of responses to influence things such as a character’s appearance, dialogue and reaction to events.
The stories are divided into episodes and the user, or “reader”, can interact with storylines and even create their own. There’s an increasing number of games targeted at these age groups, of which many follow a “choose your story” format.
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