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Department of locks

Keys, logins and the address bar

Nothing on our list requires an account. Should you create one to carry progress between devices, treat it with the care you give your email. Pippa wrote this page; it takes about four minutes to read.

The basics

Six habits that do most of the work

  1. A password nobody else has

    Three or four unrelated words strung together beat a short word with a number stuck on the end. Never reuse the one from your bank or email.

  2. Let a manager remember it

    Chrome, Safari, Edge and Firefox each ship with a free password keeper, and any of them beats a sticky note on the monitor.

  3. Add a second step to signing in

    Wherever an account offers a code by app or text, accept it. It stops most stolen passwords from being useful.

  4. Sign in with care

    Logging in through a Google or Apple account is convenient. Check which details the game asks to see before you agree.

Type the address yourself

The games on our list live at crazygames.com. Links from messages, pop-ups and search adverts can lead to copies. If a page asks for a password, check the address bar shows that exact domain before typing anything.

Nobody official will ask

No genuine game, platform or website, ours included, will message you asking for a password or a verification code. Anyone who does is trying to get into your account.

Spot the fake

Signs a login page is not what it claims

  • The address has an extra word, a hyphen or a different ending from the one you expect.
  • It promises something for free that the real game does not offer, such as unlimited upgrades.
  • It wants your phone number or date of birth before you have even reached a game.
  • The spelling and logos are slightly off, or the page appeared in a pop-up you did not open.

If it goes wrong

Think a password has leaked?

  1. Change it straight away from the real site, and anywhere else you used the same one.
  2. Use the “log out everywhere” option, where there is one.
  3. Turn on two-step sign-in if it was off.
  4. Send any dodgy email on to the NCSC through [email protected] and pass suspicious texts on to 7726.

Privacy settings

Tidy settings in the browser you already have

None of this needs extra software. Ten minutes in the settings menu covers it.

Site permissions

Games on our list need none of your camera, microphone, location or contacts. If a site asks, say no; you can review past answers under site settings.

Notifications

Decline notification requests from game pages unless you really want them. They are easy to accept by accident and tedious to unpick later.

Third-party cookies

Most browsers let you block cross-site tracking. Games still load and save normally with this on, in our experience.

For households

Parental controls that are already on the device

If a child shares the tablet or family laptop, the operating system can do most of the supervising for you.

  • Google Family Link

    For Android phones and Chromebooks: approve sites, set daily limits and a bedtime, and manage Chrome from your own phone.

  • Apple Screen Time

    Works across iPhone, iPad and Mac, with Safari content limits, downtime hours and a passcode only you know.

  • Microsoft Family Safety

    For Windows and Edge: activity reports, web filtering and screen-time schedules across devices.

  • Your broadband router

    Most UK providers include free filtering that applies to every device on the home network.