Scathing judgement for Brawl Stars, Pokemon Go, Fortnite and co.

On behalf of Stiftung Warentest, a panel of experts looked at a total of 16 popular game apps for Android, 15 of which were free and one of which was chargeable. The test field included the ten best-selling games in the period from January to March 2024, as well as a further six games that were selected with the help of young gamers because they are particularly relevant for children aged around ten. Here is the list:

• Minecraft (open world)
• Brawl Stars (comic-style battles)
• Candy Crush Saga (puzzle)
• Clash of Clans (strategy)
• Fortnite (shooter)
• Gardenscapes (horticulture)
• Genshin Impact (fantasy)
• Hay Day (farm)
• Monopoly Go (dice and building)
• Pokémon Go (fantasy creatures)
• Roblox (virtual universe)
• Royal Match (puzzle)
• Solitaire Grand Harvest (cards)
• Subway Surfers (platform game)
• Township (city building)
• Whiteout Survival (survival strategy)

For all games, the panel of experts awarded either "appropriate", "questionable" or "unacceptable" in six categories. These categories were:

• Child-friendly content
• safe use
• Report violations / support
• Advertising
• Game printing
• Purchase print

After all, Minecraft is only "questionable"

Every game that received an "unacceptable" in even just one of the six categories was also classified as "unacceptable" in the overall evaluation. Only Minecraft, for example, managed to be categorised as "questionable". As Stiftung Warentest writes, the gaming app could be okay for children with "some parental support and technical tricks". Minecraft scores highly with child-friendly content and low gameplay pressure. There is a "questionable" rating in each of the other categories.

Five of the 16 games tested received an "unacceptable" rating in four out of six categories: the role-playing game Genshin Impact, Brawl Stars, Clash of Clans, Whiteout Survival and Township. With these games, but also with the others, the supplier is enticing young gamers to play more and buy more. In addition, there is content that is harmful to children, such as violence, sex and hate messages, for example in the games' chat rooms.

Pokemon Go (pressure to play) and Solitaire Grand Harvest (pressure to buy) only came out with an "unacceptable" rating. With sufficient parental control or if the child's account is not linked to a payment option, these games are of little concern.

Typical examples of high gaming pressure are countdown discounts or gifts that are given for daily gaming. It is manipulative when a cow in Township asks with a sad look whether you really want to stop playing and is rewarded with a gift for continuing to play.

Protection of children vs. business interests

The results of the Stiftung Warentest analysis are not particularly surprising. The games are available to download free of charge, but they are backed by companies that want to make money and are not charitable organisations. They serve their business interests by persuading players to pay after the free download in order to progress faster in the game. Or they maltreat gamers with adverts. In this respect, it is difficult to achieve an "acceptable" rating in tested categories such as "advertising" or "game pressure" - even if this would be better in terms of protecting children. There is no doubt, however, that depictions of violence and sex should not be visible to the age group, nor should players be able to choose user names that are fascist or discriminatory.

The detailed test report is available in the current June issue of Stiftung Warentest or as a payable article online.

Where children can still find good games

In its article, Stiftung Warentest also provides suggestions for recommended games and links to suppliers that list such games. These are:

• A list of more educationally orientated games can be found at seitenstark.de.
• At tommi.kids includes games that have won the Children's Software Award, including popular console games such as Pikmin 4 (here is our review of it) for Nintendo or The Wandering Village for PC.
• The website spieleratgeber-nrw.de has compiled a list of games that can be filtered by age and genre.

Not mentioned by Stiftung Warentest was the option that Apple offers with its arcade catalogue. There are around 200 titles in the catalogue of the online gaming platform. Apple emphasises that the games must meet high data protection requirements in order to be included. On the other hand, there are no in-app purchases and no pay-to-win approaches. However, an Apple device is required to use Arcade Games and you have to take out a plan, which currently costs 7.90 francs per month in Switzerland and 6.99 euros in Germany.

One possible alternative to mobile games is the console. As a responsible father, my colleague Patrick Vogt recently tried the Nintendo Switch for the first time with his daughter. He wrote down his experiences here:

And gaming expert Philipp Rüegg has written down his tips in this article:

How do you feel about gaming with children? What are your kids allowed to do and what not? Write it in the comments!