Ubisoft - Company / Parents

1# How can I choose a game adapted to my child's age and preferences?

The best way to assess whether or not a game is suitable for your child, is to play with them. When choosing a game for your child, here are several criteria to keep in mind:

Your child’s age: some games are suitable for everyone, while others are recommended for a mature audience.
We recommend you look to the age rating classifications to choose the most appropriate game for your child. These classifications are clearly displayed on video game packs and online purchasing platforms. To know more about age rating in your country, please refer to Q10.
You can use parental controls available on all major consoles and PC to set customized age limits. To know more about how to set up parental controls, please refer to Q9.

The game genre: like movies and books, video games offer a range of experiences: action, adventure, strategy, sports, role-playing, first person shooter, third person shooter, racing, puzzle...
Depending on the genre, your child will exercise different skills to succeed and have fun. For example, a platforming game will require dexterity and perseverance, a strategy game will require focus, thinking and anticipation, a multiplayer game will require social interaction while a shooter will require quick decision-making and teamwork...

The level of difficulty: some games provide several difficulty levels in order to adapt to the different kind of players and improve the game’s accessibility.

The online interactivity: some games are designed to be solo experiences. Some others include an online multiplayer mode where your child may interact with other players via text or voice chat or can share different kind of content like photos.

Some of our games have free demos available that will allow you to verify whether or not the content and level of difficulty is appropriate for your child before purchase.

For more on this topic, please visit Ask about Games.

2# My child has an impairment, can they play Ubisoft games?

Ubisoft is committed to making all of its games accessible to all players regardless of their physical or mental condition.

Some Ubisoft games already include accessibility features: compatibility with third-party devices (Tobii Eye Tracking in Ghost Recon Wildlands, Steep, Watch Dogs 2, Tom Clancy’s The Division), colorblindness filters (Tom Clancy’s The Division), subtitles with adequate size, background and speaker identification (Assassin's Creed Origins), preset controls for right or left-handed use (Watch Dogs 2), ability to use the mouse to drive (The Crew 2) or on-screen instructions (Just Dance 2018).

Our 2020 goal is for all Ubisoft games to include basic accessibility features for motor, visual, hearing and cognitive impairments. Our teams are working hard to reach this objective. If you have any feedback on accessibility, please send it to our Customer Support.

Find out more about accessibility at Ubisoft here. You can also reach out to disabled gamers associations who will help you play your favorite games: SpecialEffect, AbleGamers or CapGame.

3# What is the recommended duration/frequence of a video game session? Do I have to set a time limit for my child?

There is no “one size fits all” rule for the perfect duration or frequency of a video game session. Just like other forms of entertainment, playing time should not become detrimental to basic needs: eating, sleeping, socializing and having a family life, going to school.

Playing time is a parental decision for younger children, and, for teenagers, a compromise to make as a family in order to find a guideline adapted to everyone.

Once this playing time decided, parental controls are available on all major consoles and can be used to set a time limit, monitor your child’s play time and schedule when they’re allowed to have screen time. To know more about how to set up parental controls, please refer to Q9.

If you have any concerns regarding your child’s change of behavior or in case of further questions, we advise you to contact a child or teen psychologist.

For more on this topic, please visit Ask about Games.

4# Can playing video games have an impact on my child's health?

As with other activities, there are risks linked to prolonged exposure to screens including muscular pain, visual fatigue, sleeping disorders or epilepsy.

Health professionals recommend taking regular breaks to avoid visual fatigue. They also recommend ceasing all screen interaction at least 1h before bedtime to facilitate sleep.

For people who have already had symptoms related to epilepsy in the presence of light stimulations, please see a doctor before playing video games or watching television.

If you have any concerns regarding your child’s health or should you have further questions, we recommend you contact a health specialist.

Playing videogames can improve health as is the case with Dig Rush which helps treat amblyopia, or Just Dance which is a fun way to work out or with games used as therapeutic tools either for mental or physical health issues.

For more on this topic, please visit Ask about Games

5# Will playing violent video games lead to violent behavior?

Just like other forms of entertainment such as books, television series or movies, video games, including those created by Ubisoft, can depict violent content. These games remain works of fiction and are created for mature audiences only and are not intended for minors.

There is no credible and objective evidence that shows a link between playing video games and/or being exposed to violent content having an impact on aggression or violent behavior in real life.

We recommend you rely on age classifications and descriptors on the video game packs and online purchasing platforms to choose the most appropriate game for your family. To learn more about age rating in your country, please refer to Q10.

You can also set up parental control on consoles and mobile devices that will give your child access to certain games and not others. To learn more about how to set up parental controls, please refer to Q9.

Last but not least, we think playing with your kids is one of the best ways to ensure that the game content is suitable for them.

For more on this topic, please visit Ask about Games.

6# How can I protect my family from bad behavior online (cheating, insults, harassment...)?

First of all, discussing with your family about respecting other people while playing video games is as important as it is in daily life, regardless whether your child is a victim of bad behavior or not.

There are parental controls available on all major consoles, which you can use to restrict and/or monitor online features for your family like in-game chat, or restricting the ability to post screenshots to social media or disabling use of the internet browser. To learn more about how to set up parental controls, please refer to Q9.

We are committed to doing everything we can to eliminate and prevent bad behavior online within our games, services, community pages and any other platform we own.

You can find Codes of Conducts with rules to protect our players and provide a safe experience here:

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege
Tom Clancy’s The Division
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands
For Honor

For all other Ubisoft games, please refer to the general Terms of Use.

Know that online discussions and content being shared in-game or on any other platform that we own are actively monitored by dedicated professional teams, AI tech and community volunteers.

Players can report inappropriate behaviors via a “Report” system located in some Ubisoft online games or in contacting our customer support team. Sanctions are gradual and escalate to permanent bans depending on the case. Our moderation teams are also working around the clock to review abuse reports.

In addition to reporting inappropriate behavior, in some of Ubisoft online games, players can also mute or block a toxic player.

7# How can I protect my child's personal data?

We recommend reading our privacy policy for information regarding Ubisoft’s collection and use of data. This policy outlines our efforts to protect player data, especially data from underage users. In accordance with laws, our players or their legal guardians may access, modify or ask to delete the personal data that we collected. To create a Ubisoft account, users need to be above the minimum age set in their respective countries (for example: 14 years old in the United States and Canada, 16 in most European countries).

Ubisoft is committed to complying with the privacy laws & regulations of all the countries where it operates, notably the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) & ESRB's Privacy Certified Program in the US. Moreover, the ESRB reviews our products and services to make sure they are compliant with US privacy laws.

8# What can my child learn by playing video games?

Like other forms of entertainment, playing videogames fosters affective, cognitive and relational development of everyone and especially children, as shown by children development specialists. Video games are a source of entertainment, pleasure and fun! It can be a great way to spend quality time as a family.

According to many studies, video games can develop a great variety of abilities for players of all ages. The studies tend to highlight three main areas that video games can help develop:

Cognitive abilities such as dexterity, hand-eye coordination, memory, 3D spatial orientation, multi-tasking
Social abilities like cooperation, collaboration and team spirit
Personal abilities like perseverance, self-confidence, creativity, empathy

The World Economic Forum estimates that 33% of the jobs we expect people to have in 2020 don’t even exist yet. New skills are needed to be successful in the 21st century, especially those skills linked to tech literacy, interpersonal skills and problem solving. Playing video games is a great way to improve one’s tech and digital literacy, decision-making and stress management. As an increasing number of games offer multiplayer modes, they are also developing collaborative skills and team spirit.

A comprehensive list of studies is available here. Video games can also be a great way to learn new things: strategy, history, geography, culture, foreign languages, cooking, fitness, dance — you name it! When people have fun, they are in an ideal state of mind to learn and grow.

In Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed for example, players learn about key moments in history while having fun. With the recent Discovery Tour by Assassin’s Creed, players are invited to explore Ancient Egypt where they can take guided tours to discover historical sites without being interrupted by combat or quests. With Ubisoft’s Rocksmith, players can learn how to play a real guitar and with Ubisoft’s Just Dance, players can build self-confidence, get in exercise and learn new moves for the dance floor!

9# How can I set up parental controls on my console/PC/mobile?

If you own a PlayStation 3, visit this page
If you own a PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 4 Pro, visit this page
If you own an Xbox 360, visit this page
If you own an Xbox One, visit this page or watch this this video
If you own a Switch, Nintendo has developed a mobile app that helps you set up parental controls. You can learn more about the app here or watch this video
If you own a PC equipped with Windows, visit this page
If you own a MAC, visit this page
If you own an Android system, visit this page
If you own an Apple system, visit this page (Parental Control) and this one (Guided Access)

The most common features include managing your child’s play time (setting time limits, scheduling when they are allowed to play), restricting and/or monitoring the type of content they can access and restricting and/or monitoring online features (including chat and online payments).

10# What do age rating labels stand for? Where to know more about age rating in my country?

Age rating in video games is handled by independent organizations such as PEGI in Europe or ESRB in the US for example. Their role is to advise consumers and parents in particular about the content suitability of a game for a certain age range. Their classifications usually include two elements:

Minimum age recommendation
Content descriptors, notably Violence or Bad Language

These classifications are displayed on video game packs and online purchasing platforms.

Here is a full list of organizations in charge of age ratings and where they apply:

USA and Canada: ESRB
Europe (except Germany), Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Israel: PEGI
Germany: USK
South Africa: FPB
Australia: ACB
New Zealand: OFLC NZ
Brazil: Classificação Indicativa
Japan: CERO
South Korea: GRAC
Taiwan: CSRR
Singapore: IMDA

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