Among Us is a free-to-play online multiplayer game based on strategy and action. Its popularity skyrocketed due to the national lockdowns in 2020, and it has remained popular with gamers and livestreamers ever since.
Age Restrictions
Among Us is rated PEGI 7+ due to mild violence. On the Apple App Store, the game is rated as 9+. However, the game’s privacy policy states that the platform is not designed for anyone under the age of 16.
Core Functions
- Players take on roles of either ‘Crewmate’ or ‘Imposter’ and have to figure out who is a friend and who is an enemy.
- In teams of up to 10 people, players must complete tasks on their ships and figure who ‘among them’ is an imposter.
- Any imposters must deflect attention away from themselves to others, while sabotaging the crew’s missions.
- Crewmates are ‘killed’ by imposters in order to derail the mission.
- The game ends whenever all imposters are dead and tasks are completed, there is an equal number of crewmates and imposters, or the imposters successfully sabotage enough missions.
- Players can choose to play ‘local’ (with people they know) or ‘online’ (a public game with randomly assigned teammates).
Risks
- Players do not need an account to play this game (though you receive benefits for signing up), and are able to access chat options with strangers during gameplay.
- User data is collected and applied to in-app advertising. There are also several in-app purchasing options, which might be tempting for dedicated players.
- Even though Among Us is not designed for children under 16, there is no effective age verification on the platform.
- Among Us is played by a wide range of people at every stage of life. This means that young people could be put into a team with adults, who are able to connect with them using the chat function.
Safety Settings
- Switch off chat or switch on ‘chat-censor’ to filter explicit language from the group chats.
- Choose ‘local’ play instead of ‘online’ play to reduce risk of stranger interaction.
- Report users who make offensive comments, harass others, or cheat in the game, resulting in permanent or temporary ban.
Top Tips
- Ensure any Among Us matches are played ‘locally’ with trusted friends and family.
- Go through reporting features on the platform with those in your care and outline when these should be used.
- Utilise chat-censor options or recommend playing with the chatbot disabled.
- Remind young people of the importance of screentime moderation.
- Explain that they should never give out any personal information to strangers online (e.g. phone number, real name, address, school, and/or any club names they attend).
Among Us Jargon Buster
Sus is simply short for the word ‘suspicious’. Anyone who seems to have the potential to be an impostor is most definitely ‘sus’ and you should let your crew know.
These can be found throughout all of the gameplay maps. They allow Impostors to quickly jump inside and move between a designated set of rooms.
Elec is short for ‘electrical’, which refers to a section on the most popular map, The Skeld.
If you walk past an impostor mid-kill, but didn’t notice and keep going, then you’re throwing.
Third Impostor is used as a subtle dig at someone who is not being a very good crewmate.