The internet has exploded with easy to find, free to play, online games for all ages. For parents this can be intimidating as you have to be sure what your kids are playing and accessing on the internet. There are many appropriate, educational and age specific offerings that are safe and fun to choose from. Below are some top picks.

The Magic School Bus is a collection of educational online games aimed at ages 3-10 based on the popular children’s television show. Join the class as they visit several different habitats and learn how land, sea and space are different.

Many children’s television stations have their own online game to accompany their programming. The American PBS Kids programming and British CBBC are two such, each having a variety of educational and entertaining games. These games have similar themes and characters as to their different television programs.

For Children interested in space, NASA has their own set of online games designed for children of all ages. The NASA Kids club has many games based on real life space missions that combine education, real space science and popular games like ‘Angry birds’ and ‘high School Musical in Space’. NASA uses franchises that children are already familiar with to teach about space and science.

For older children who want a social gaming experience, there are online sites like Club Penguin and Neopets offer children the opportunity to play games and interact with others their own age. Club Penguin allows users to create a penguin avatar that can be dressed up, chat and play games with other avatars online. Neopets lets children collect, breed, trade and play with digital pets, most of them fantastic in origin. These types of games are termed Massively Multiplayer Online games as they typically have thousands of users logged in and playing at any given time.