Among Us was one of the most popular games in 2020. In a nutshell, it’s a 4-10 player murder mystery “whodunnit” game where there are one or more impostors in a closed-off location along with a plethora of crewmates. The goal of the impostors is to kill off the crewmates without being voted out, while the crewmates’ job is to find out who the culprits are during emergency meetings or by completing all the required tasks.

Since people were cooped up in their homes, it became a way for groups of friends to hang out and have fun. This might have been the case with your kids: they got swept up by the trend and ended up playing the game online.

As a parent, the way it’s played presents many concerns. First, it’s a game based on deception and persuasion: impostors have to lie with a straight face about how they didn’t commit murder, while crewmates have to persuade people about how they aren’t the culprit. Plus, there’s also killing involved, which might be a touchy issue for some parents.

So, with this in mind, is Among Us safe for kids? Let’s dive in:

What can kids learn in Among Us?

Among Us’ appeal is on its social element. It’s what you’d play with your friends at a party. Due to the current state of affairs in the world today, people used third-party software like Facebook Messenger and Discord to communicate since there’s no in-game voice chat.

The game encourages kids to talk with others, developing their social and conversational skills. It also helps them practice forming and conceptualizing their thoughts and boosting their logic and decision-making skills. Moreover, the game can turn them into amateur sleuths by detecting discrepancies and fallacies in the arguments presented by their peers.

Community and online

Among Us’ main appeal, its social element is also its most significant concern. Though Among Us’ has an in-game chat function and profanity filter, it is always superseded by third-party voice chat platforms.

On many occasions, kids will have to go online and find voice lobbies to play in, which means scouring Facebook groups and internet forums for Discord chat rooms. Although toxicity and bullying may be rare, they’ll inevitably encounter rotten eggs among the mix. Moreover, there will always be people with a superiority complex who will try to dominate the conversation and not hear what others have to say. It could be an in-game tactic, but it’s insulting to cut off another player’s chance to speak. Finally, most lobbies will always have vulgarity and expletives, which isn’t always ideal for kids.

Is Among Us safe for kids?

Yes, when supervised.

Kids should only be allowed to play the game with their friends and family under close adult supervision. We don’t recommend having them play the game with strangers since it inevitably exposes them to bullying, expletives, and even suggestive mature content. As parents, it would be best to monitor who your kids play with and give them a talk about why it wouldn’t be a great idea to play with strangers.

Apart from the online element, there’s also the killing aspect. Though blood and violence are present, they are at a bare minimum to the point of being cartoonish. Blood appears as a short streak for half a second when a murder happens. Death animations are outlandish, comical, and age-appropriate that the ESRB rated the game as safe for kids 10+.

Finally, there’s also the lying part. In a way, the game encourages kids to make up stories to deceive people if they’re impostors. This can become a problem in real life, but you can always talk to them about how it’s ok in-game, but definitely not something they should do in real life.

In-game elements to talk to your kids about

All in all, Among Us is safe for kids, but it would be a great idea to sit down and talk to them about:

- Why playing with strangers isn’t a good idea.
- Why they should only play with friends and how they should behave.
- The killing and lying elements.

So, will you let your kids play Among Us and do you think it’s safe for them to do so? If you haven’t reached a decision yet, we recommend learning more about it via this review.