Concerned parents and caregivers can follow the ratings of the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) to ensure that they select age-appropriate PSP games for their kids. But when a game is played over the Internet, your child could be interacting with perfect strangers, from anywhere in the world, of any age and personality profile. As the ESRB notes on the box of every game with online play, the experience of certain games is subject to change when players go online.
Aside from games, there are other ways for people to interact online with the PSP. This article will suggest things you can do to help keep the PSP's online experience friendly for your child, whether playing a game or not.
The Microphone
The PSP microphone is built into the 2000, 3000 and N1000 (PSPgo) models, and there are optional headsets with microphone available for all models. There haven't been that many games to support the mic, but of those that do, some use it for voice chat online. Many of these are already too violent for young kids -- but take the games online, and the things heard over voice chat could make a grown person blush (or cry). Kids could hear extremely foul language and crass remarks, or encounter people with some very bad attitudes (racist and sexist come to mind). They could end up getting their feelings hurt, having verbal arguments, or just feeling crummy from the whole ordeal.
List of PSP Games with Voice Chat
In the future, there may be more PSP games that support voice chat. It's important to know what those games are, and to consider limiting a child to playing in-person with their friends through ad hoc mode, where an adult can supervise the exchanges. Certain games support the mic for ad hoc mode, as well.
Outside of games, there are more ways the PSP can go online and make use of the microphone. Skype for PSP allows you to make "phone calls" to other PSPs and computers for free, and to cell phones for a by-the-minute rate. It can be fun if your child wants to make calls to their real-life friends, but the same rules and supervision that you give them when talking on the computer should also apply to the PSP.
There are alternative, more kid-safe ways have fun with the mic -- for example, Talkman, a translation and language learning game. The mascot of the software, a Muppet-like blue bird named Max, will interact with the player and help them speak words and phrases in 6 languages.
Text Chat
In contrast to the microphone, almost all PSP games with online play allow text chat with other players. This can occur in the "lobby" before starting the game, or during the game itself, and is accomplished using a PSP keyboard (sold separately) or just by entering characters from the on-screen keypad.
Not only will kids not hear someone yelling derogatory comments in their ear, certain games implement filters for bad language in text chat, like Worms: Open Warfare 2. On top of that, kids probably won't go around repeating something they've only read with a bunch of asterisks in it. So all in all, text chat is probably preferable for kids, but you should still make sure to monitor them once in a while. There can be people who choose to type out their nastiness for others, so just tell your child to ignore them as much as possible.
Surfing the Web
The PSP has a Web Browser, and some web pages are customized for a good viewing experience on PSP. Of course, kids will want to take advantage of this, likely to browse the same sites as on the computer. But we all know what's on the Web, and as with any Internet use, you should be watchful of your child's browsing activities on PSP.
Out-of-the-box, the PSP does not have very good parental controls for the Internet browser. The "Parental Control" setting only applies to games, movies, and other rated content, while the "Internet Browser Start Control" prevents the browser from starting, at all, if the proper 4-digit number is not supplied. It's an all-or-nothing approach, I'm afraid. Even if you turn on the Browser Control, enterprising kids can find out how to reset the number (called a PIN) on many web pages, in the system's manual, or the PSP User's Guide, directly accessible on the PSP.
While you can't rely on these built-in controls, you can download a trial of Trend Micro's Kid Safety for PSP for free. If you like it, the full version costs US$20, a price comparable to the parental control software you would normally have on a PC. Trend Micro is reputable, as they make software for personal and corporate use.
How To Install Trend Micro's Kid Safety for PSP
Hopefully, you now know more about what online interactions are possible on the PSP -- and how, with a little supervision and some creativity, you can make the PSP's online experience as safe for children as possible.