Taming Gaming is new book of "family gaming recipes" to help parents

I was invited to write a book about gaming for parents by crowdfunding publish Unbound. Today, the book can be pre-ordered from £10 on Unbound.com.

Taming Gaming is an unflinching look at how games can benefit family life. It compiles the latest research and advice from psychologists, industry experts, parents, schools and children’s charities. It aims to help you discover why your child plays video games and help you allay screen time concerns by guiding your child’s gaming towards fulfilling, healthy experiences. Beth Lewis, Commissioning Editor at Unbound, said, “Taming Gaming is an important and timely book. The gaming recipes offer parents an easy way to get involved in their child’s hobby and start guiding them towards healthy habits.” Written with non-gaming parents in mind, the book helps you tame the games your child plays, by equipping you to make informed decisions, engage in this area of life and guide their gaming diet. It’s packed with beautifully laid out tried and tested “family gaming recipes”. Each recipe shows you everything you need to know with jargon-free instructions that take the guesswork out of gaming together. Now parents who’d rather just lock it all away can access a broad diet of cutting edge games children will love, and help them navigate this unavoidable part of life.

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CEO of Internet Matters Carolyn Bunting said, “The recipes in this book help make gaming a positive experience for the whole family -  as they promote balance and variety among children, encourage healthy screen-time habits and crucially help parents to keep their kids safe online." Ken Corish, Online Safety Director, UK Safer Internet Centre commented that “this book is a breath of fresh air in the current dialogue on children’s online gaming. It adds sophistication and insight to achieve the most rewarding gaming experiences rather than panic, fear and barriers. The recipes section for parents shapes each carefully chosen example to the needs and context of their child. Like all of the best cookbooks, the results keep you coming back for more.”

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Professor Sonia Livingstone, OBE, Department of Media and Communications at LSE also commented on the gaming recipe idea. “Many parents feel anxious about digital technologies and are unsure where to get advice – their own parents are often less useful here than in other areas, for instance. Much of the advice on offer is commercially-motivated, or underestimates parents’ developing digital knowledge, or is frankly unrealistic about the everyday pressures of family life. So a new approach is definitely needed.” Taming Gaming is available to preorder on the Unbound website.