One of the challenges of staying up to date with video games in your family is not knowing what you don’t know. Another is not having the time and space to investigate and get up to speed. 

The Press Start for PlayStation Safety quiz created in partnership with Internet Matters is a neat way to deal with both these problems at once. Set aside 15 minutes and you can go through the key areas of online safety in a systematic and easy-to-digest way. It highlights all those things you know you meant to think through but with busy family life haven’t got to yet. Better still, it does this in a way that can be shared with a partner or child.

We worked with Sony Interactive Entertainment to put this to the test with a real family. I spent an afternoon with the Uden’s, playing games and getting a feel of how they used technology for entertainment, homework and gaming. We left the kids to play in the living room and set ourselves up with the quiz and a cup of tea in the kitchen.

Each of the questions offers you a range of answers to pick. Once you have made your selections you are told how many you got right. At each step and at the end, you are offered links for more information to fill in any gaps you discover.

As you can see in the video, it was a process that got them talking about some topics they hadn’t considered before. “We’ve had talks from schools, but actually it’s quite useful to go through this together and share notes,” said Mum. “It’s good to make time to have that conversation together,” agreed Dad.

I think the biggest sign that this is useful is that they would recommend it to their friends. “I thought it was going to mostly just be information,” said Mum, “but to be encouraged to actually have those conversations with your children is really nice. I would definitely tell my friends to have a go at it.” “The quiz just makes it easy. It’s actually quite nice to do,” said Dad.

We checked back with the Udens a couple of weeks later, to see how the advice had helped. It was good to see how they had set up the parent controls on their PlayStation. They also told me how they had talked through what they had discovered with their kids and come up with a plan for internet safety together.

If you’d like to have a go at the quiz with your family, you can access it for free via Internet Matters: Press Start for PlayStation Safety quiz.