A Grandparent's Guide to Online Gaming (No Gaming Required)

If your grandchild is glued to a game you've never heard of and speaks about it in words that mean nothing to you, this guide is written to bring you up to speed in plain English — no gaming knowledge assumed. Online games are mostly a social, joyful part of childhood, and once you understand what the big three actually are, the safety side comes down to a few sensible settings and three simple questions. You do not need to play anything to be a wise grandparent about it.

We'll translate the games first, explain why children love them so much, then cover the two things worth watching — who they talk to, and what they might spend — in language that assumes you'd rather not become a gamer yourself.

The Big Three, Translated for a Non-Gamer

Three games come up again and again. Here is what each one really is, in a paragraph.

Roblox is not a single game but a giant playground of millions of little games, nearly all made by other users — think of an app full of homemade fairground rides, some wonderful, some rough around the edges. Children hop between them, build their own, and chat while they play. It's free to download but pushes its own currency, "Robux," constantly. The official rating is Teen (13+ from the ESRB), with a note that content varies widely because so much of it is user-made, so the settings you choose matter a great deal.

Fortnite is a colourful, cartoon-style contest where up to a hundred players drop onto an island and the last one standing wins, building walls and ramps as they go. The style is bright and unrealistic rather than gory, but it is still a game about eliminating other players; the ESRB rates it Teen (13+) for violence. It's free to play, and it sells "V-Bucks" for costumes and a seasonal "battle pass." Chat with other players — including by voice — is a core part of it.

Minecraft is the gentlest of the three: a world of building blocks where children create, explore, and fend off cartoon monsters. Much of it is played alone or in a private world with invited friends, where there is no contact with strangers at all. It's rated E10+ (Everyone 10 and up) for mild fantasy violence. Stranger contact only becomes possible on public multiplayer servers, and even that can be switched off. Of the three, it's widely considered one of the safer choices — its ESRB rating is E10+.

Why Kids Love Them (It's Social, Not Antisocial)

It is easy to look at a grandchild absorbed in a game and see them shutting out the world. Usually the opposite is true: they are in the world, just a digital one. These games are where friendships happen now — the modern equivalent of meeting up at the park or the playground after school.

When your grandchild plays Roblox or Fortnite, they are very often playing with their real school friends, talking and laughing together across the game. The game is the meeting place, not a replacement for company. Understanding this changes the whole tone of the conversation: you are not prising them away from something empty and addictive, you are taking an interest in where their social life lives. A grandparent who asks "who are you playing with?" with genuine curiosity, rather than suspicion, gets a much warmer answer — and learns far more.

That doesn't mean every worry evaporates. The social nature is exactly what creates the two things worth watching: the people they talk to, and the money they can spend.

The Three Questions to Ask About Any Game

You don't need to learn each game inside out. For any game a grandchild brings home, these three questions tell you almost everything that matters:

1. "Can you talk to strangers in it?" This is the big one. If yes, you'll want to look at the chat settings (below). If it's only friends, or nobody, the risk drops sharply.
2. "Does it cost money, or try to sell you things?" Most free games make their money by selling extras. Knowing this upfront lets you head off surprise charges.
3. "What age is it meant for?" Every proper game carries an age rating. If it's rated Teen and your grandchild is eight, that's worth a pause and a closer look.

Ask these calmly, as interested questions rather than a checklist, and you'll understand any new game in about two minutes — even one you've never heard of.

Three questions for any new game

When a grandchild starts a game you don't know, just ask:

1. "Can strangers talk to you in it?" — if so, lock chat down to friends.
2. "Does it try to sell you things?" — if so, set a purchase PIN and remove saved cards.
3. "What age is it made for?" — check the rating against your grandchild's age.

Voice Chat, in Plain Terms

Here's the part that surprises many grandparents: modern games don't just let children type messages — they let them talk out loud, in real time, through a headset, often with complete strangers. That's "voice chat," and it's worth understanding because you can't see it in a browser history or overhear it from the next room.

In Fortnite, for example, voice chat can connect your grandchild to random players across the world. The good news is that it can be limited. Epic's parental controls let you set voice chat to "Friends Only" or turn it off entirely, which is the setting we'd suggest for most children. Roblox and other games have similar options buried in their settings. The principle is simple and the same everywhere: limit voice chat to people the child actually knows. If a capable relative helps you set that once per game, you've closed one of the biggest gaps. For the fuller picture of what can go wrong in game chat and how to handle it, our guide to the dangers of online gaming chat explains it without alarm.

The Spending Traps: Robux and V-Bucks

The second thing worth watching is money. These games are free to start precisely because they're designed to sell you things once you're hooked — and children are their softest target.

Robux (in Roblox) and V-Bucks (in Fortnite) are the in-game currencies. Your grandchild buys them with real money, then spends them on costumes, characters, upgrades, and seasonal "battle passes." It's designed to feel painless and constant, and to a child, spending "500 Robux" doesn't register as spending real dollars. Both games push these purchases hard — the spending pressure is genuinely high — which is how a quiet afternoon can turn into a startling bill.

The fix is straightforward and doesn't require you to understand the games at all:

• Don't save a payment card in the game or on the device's app store.
• Turn on a purchase PIN or password so nothing can be bought without an adult typing it in.
• If you allow spending, use gift cards with a fixed amount rather than a linked card — when it's gone, it's gone, and there's no surprise.

Do those three things and the spending trap is far harder to spring. Our safety pages on Fortnite and Minecraft walk through the exact settings for each, one screen at a time.

Ordinary, Mostly Wonderful

It's worth ending where we began: for most children, online gaming is a happy, social, creative part of growing up. Your job is not to become a gamer or to view every game with suspicion — it's to lock down chat, close off surprise spending, and stay curious about the world your grandchild loves. Do that, and you can relax into enjoying their enthusiasm rather than fearing it.

Seeing the Game Chat You Can't Overhear

The one thing that stays hard, even after you've set every control, is knowing what actually happens inside a game — the chat you can't overhear and the purchases that flash by. On a Windows PC, that's the quiet gap KindEye fills. It looks at what genuinely appears on the screen while your grandchild plays and sends you one short, plain-language summary each evening — including a gentle heads-up if something in a chat or a purchase looks worth a word. There's nothing to learn and no game knowledge required; it's built for the grandparent who'd rather not become a gamer. It backs up the settings and questions above rather than replacing them. You can try KindEye free and see how it reads a gaming session.

Sources

• Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) ratings for Roblox (Teen), Fortnite (Teen — Violence), and Minecraft (Everyone 10+), as verified in KindEye's safety-page reviews — esrb.org (accessed August 2026)
• KindEye safety-page research on Roblox, Fortnite, and Minecraft chat and spending mechanics (Robux, V-Bucks, voice chat, parental controls), verified against ESRB listings, 2026-08
• KindEye editorial guidance for grandparent caregivers, cross-referenced with our online-gaming-chat and per-game safety guides, 2026-08