Is Candy Crush Saga Safe? A Candy Crush Saga App Review for Parents

Harmful Content 😲

The game itself is as wholesome and simple as it gets. You are given a board of different types of candy and your objective is to switch the candy around until you get at least 3 in a row. Different levels will have mini objectives, like collecting a certain amount of specially wrapped candy. You won’t find any inappropriate content or messaging while playing — just colorful graphics and encouraging messages when you’ve made a smart move. 

If there’s anything to be concerned about, it’ll be what you can do outside of the game. First, there’s the purchasing aspect of the game. Users are encouraged to buy Gold Bars which is the in-app currency of Candy Crush Saga. Gold Bars can be used to buy one-ups and bonuses in the game. Parents will want to make sure their kids have to ask permission before buying anything in the app. Otherwise, kids could rack up a long list of purchases without even realizing it. 

The second thing is access to a Candy Crush Saga Community forum (aka, the “King Community”). In settings, there’s a speech bubble icon that will open up a browser on your phone. There are dozens of discussion forums where you can add your comments and read others. Fortunately, there is no ability to comment on other users’ comments, taking away the potential for chatting with strangers. And there seem to be strict content guidelines that will censor anything inappropriate by a Community Manager. It’s important to know that harmful content could slip through the cracks and serve as a backdoor to the web for kids who find it. 

Predation 🚨

Candy Crush Saga has an option to add friends through the app. The game will suggest other players for you to request as friends. You can also send a personal link to your contacts to request them as a friend. There is no restriction to who you can add but each friend request has to be accepted by the user. The purpose of having friends in the game is to send each other “lives” which allow you to re-try a level you failed to pass. 

The good news is that there is NO chatting feature between users that friend each other. This means there’s no opportunity for a predator to contact your child through being friends on Candy Crush Saga. 

Privacy 🔒

Upon downloading and making an account with Candy Crush Saga, the app will ask for your name and email address. As always, Bark encourages kids to use non-identifying information when making accounts online. But besides that, there seems to be no breach of privacy that parents should be concerned about. 

Parental Controls ✅

There are no parental controls on Candy Crush, so there is not much getting in the way of your kid accessing the King Community forum and making in-app purchases. Luckily, Bark gives you another way. Bark allows you to:

• Block Candy Crush entirely, if needed.
• Manage when your kid can play Candy Crush throughout the day. 

So, should my kid download it?

Possibly! When it comes to mobile app games, there are certainly worse options in terms of content and protection. But as long as parents are aware of the potential dangers, then they should be able to make an accurate judgment on whether or not Candy Crush Saga is appropriate for their child.