Gamer Problems: Being Stalked By Children

In today’s very special episode of Speak-Up on Kotaku, commenter Hongo deals with an issue that every gamer faces at some point: Children think we’re pretty damn awesome.

I have no problem with most little kids. My cousin’s cousin asked me for my PSN ID because he wanted to add me as a friend on his new PS3 he got for his birthday. Ok, that’s fine, no problem if he wants to play a game or something if we happen to have the same games someday. We know each other and I’ve played pool and air hockey with him before, but he’s 11 and I’m 21.

I raced the kid online in GT5 and he had a blast. I even gave him a code for a DLC car that that I had already redeemed last month but had a few other codes sitting on the side in a Word document just to help him get his car collection started. No problem.

Then, he gets on Facebook and adds me as a friend. I have no problem friending little kids or anything since I know a bunch due to my family and family friends, it’s only when they start talking to me that I get annoyed or unfriend them. Yeah, that’s probably not very nice, but I feel weird when it comes to little kids, social networking, age differences, etc. I’m sure everyone has encountered that before when it comes to online friendships with pretty much anything.

So the kid starts asking me for my cellphone number. I white lie and tell him my cellphone has no service. I thought he might take my word and stop asking, but he’s persistent.

Then, he asks my sister for my number and keeps asking her what it is. She kind of tells him the same thing, but he keeps going around wanting my cellphone number, even asking my other cousins and my aunt. To be honest, I just don’t want text messages from an 11 year old, let alone phone calls.

I understand the whole he’s 11, I’m older and played a game with him and now I’m one of the coolest people ever in his eyes, but it’s just… bothersome? I figure that if I can keep him blocked from certain things on my Facebook profile and just play GT5 with him once a week or so, this phase will pass for him.

Anyone else ever run into this problem?

About Speak-Up on Kotaku: Our readers have a lot to say, and sometimes what they have to say has nothing to do with the stories we run. That’s why we have a forum on Kotaku called Speak-Up. That’s the place to post anecdotes, photos, game tips and hints, and anything you want to share with Kotaku at large. Every weekday we’ll pull one of the best Speak-Up posts we can find and highlight it here.

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