Among Us - What's New 2022?
What is Among Us?
Among Us is a party game of teamwork and betrayal. Crewmates work together to complete tasks before one or more Impostors can kill everyone aboard. The imposter can use sabotage to cause chaos, and avoid being caught for easier kills. The game does contain mild violence and is designed for users aged 7+.
What’s new?
See our latest poster…
Among Us is now available on mobile, PC, and consoles.
The new addition is the option to play using a console. This includes: Xbox One, Xbox Series S / X, PS4, and PS5 consoles.
When playing using a console you have the option to play on or offline. When playing online you can join a game in three ways:
Host – Create a game
Public – Find a game
Private – Enter a game code
Among Us is a party game of teamwork and betrayal. Crewmates work together to complete tasks before one or more Impostors can kill everyone aboard. The imposter can use sabotage to cause chaos, and avoid being caught for easier kills. The game does contain mild violence and is designed for users aged 7+.
What’s new?
See our latest poster…
Among Us is now available on mobile, PC, and consoles.
The new addition is the option to play using a console. This includes: Xbox One, Xbox Series S / X, PS4, and PS5 consoles.
When playing using a console you have the option to play on or offline. When playing online you can join a game in three ways:
Host – Create a game
Public – Find a game
Private – Enter a game code
Most users tend to opt for ‘public’ gaming. This means you join a game hosted by someone else online. One of our safeguarding consultants decided to join a ‘public’ game to understand more about how it works.
Once they had selected to play ‘public’ they entered a lobby whereby they could pick from a number of different games being ‘hosted’ by other users. They were immediately surprised to see the top 5 hosts usernames as ‘horniguy’, ‘HorniSnap’, ‘stoney’, ‘Horxyguy’ and ‘Suckmebaby’. This came as a surprise baring in mind the PEGI rating for this game is aged 7+.
Our consultant then decided to join a game using ‘Free Chat’ rather than ‘Quick Chat’.
Quick Chat - This feature is designed to be an easier, faster, and safer option to play if you're using text chat. The feature basically allows players to send pre-defined messages to other players.
Free Chat – This feature allows users to type what they wish to send. Although you can use the censor filter to block out bad language, it does not block everything and there are words that are not picked up by the filter. So, despite this feature, there is the potential that users can be exposed to inappropriate content.
Within seconds of joining the game using ‘free chat’ messages started to come through which concerned our safeguarding consultant. Our consultant then left the game.
Once they had selected to play ‘public’ they entered a lobby whereby they could pick from a number of different games being ‘hosted’ by other users. They were immediately surprised to see the top 5 hosts usernames as ‘horniguy’, ‘HorniSnap’, ‘stoney’, ‘Horxyguy’ and ‘Suckmebaby’. This came as a surprise baring in mind the PEGI rating for this game is aged 7+.
Our consultant then decided to join a game using ‘Free Chat’ rather than ‘Quick Chat’.
Quick Chat - This feature is designed to be an easier, faster, and safer option to play if you're using text chat. The feature basically allows players to send pre-defined messages to other players.
Free Chat – This feature allows users to type what they wish to send. Although you can use the censor filter to block out bad language, it does not block everything and there are words that are not picked up by the filter. So, despite this feature, there is the potential that users can be exposed to inappropriate content.
Within seconds of joining the game using ‘free chat’ messages started to come through which concerned our safeguarding consultant. Our consultant then left the game.
Beans.
Beans are one of the new currencies added to Among Us. At the end of the game, Beans are rewarded to every player no matter if they were on the winning or losing team. The Beans can then be used to purchase different customizations at the in-game shop. The beans are not a currency you need to purchase using real-world money.
There are also a handful of cosmetics that require stars, but those are the premium currency for Among Us, and those do require real-world money to purchase.
Tips to keep children safe in the game.
Beans are one of the new currencies added to Among Us. At the end of the game, Beans are rewarded to every player no matter if they were on the winning or losing team. The Beans can then be used to purchase different customizations at the in-game shop. The beans are not a currency you need to purchase using real-world money.
There are also a handful of cosmetics that require stars, but those are the premium currency for Among Us, and those do require real-world money to purchase.
Tips to keep children safe in the game.
- Encourage your child to set games to ‘private’ and only play with people that they know in the ‘real world’ that parent and carers know of too.
- If they are the Host of the game, advise them to be more vigilant of what players are saying or doing. Encourage them to speak to a trusted adult if they see or hear anything that concerns them.
- For children using Discord to speak to players in the game, encourage them to put the sound through speakers rather than on a headset so you can be aware of what is being said.
- Have open discussions with children about the topics associated with online use - bullying, grooming, sexual and criminal exploitation, body image, as well as accessing support and how to report.