A friend recently asked me if fantasy sports were safe for her son to play. Simply, the answer is yes, but the answer is definitely not that cut and dry, as there are some benefits and issues that parents should know about before letting their children play fantasy football or any other fantasy sport.

First of all, there are a number of benefits. Fantasy sports is all about numbers. As kids become active in fantasy sports, they quickly learn how to translate raw stats into meaningful fantasy statistics. This can range from determining Johan Santana’s earned run average for the day to figuring out how many fantasy points LaDainian Tomlinson’s monster day generated. In fact, there are even a series of math textbooks that play on the strong connection between fantasy sports and mathematics. Second, playing and winning fantasy football and other fantasy sports involves a serious amount of strategy, negotiation, and compromise. In other words, kids are going to have to think about how to win. Developing critical thinking skills in a fun way is another definite plus.

Now, there are issues with children playing fantasy sports online. Of course, there is always an online safety and privacy concern, so hopefully if your kids play online, they are supervised. Also, if kids are playing in public leagues or even leagues amongst their friends, expect some of the team names to be tasteless and trash talking to occur on league message boards. If your son is in a league with other nine-year olds, then the messages are probably going to be fairly benign. Otherwise, keep your eyes peeled.

There are some fantasy sports leagues specifically designed for children and families. Currently, there are two fantasy football games and only one company that tailors themselves specifically to kids and families. Launched in 2008, and now in its second season of offering family-friendly fantasy football game, Family Fantasy Sports is still the only site that is creating fantasy sports games specifically for kids and their parents. Family Fantasy Sports has developed a game that the whole family can play together. Plus, players can win part of a $40,000 prize pool towards college. Another option is SIKids.com Fantasy Football, which is a simple salary cap game that kids can play with their friends or against the rest of the world.

Like anything, fantasy football for kids has some issues, but nothing that a little supervision and playing at the right places cannot solve.