Guess what? Some teenagers do not play Video Games

Mike Bantick
Thursday, 18 September 2008 11:54

Your IT - Entertainment

A Princeton survey of teens and parents in the U.S, has concluded that just about every teenager in the country is currently playing video games.  So who are the miscreants that are not?


A Princeton Survey for the Pew Internet & American Life Project took aside 1,102 teenagers and parents and grilled them about their video gaming.

Over the period 1st November through to the start of February this year subjects were quizzed about the electronic entertainment habits within their households.

Of the parents that condoned gaming for their offspring, a little over half (56 percent) actually knew what they were playing, and checked the game age ratings.  One in five of these parents also felt that video games had a positive effect on their children.

Unsurprisingly the ten percent of parents that believed their kids were not game players were only three percent convinced of any positive effect that a video game could have.

As it is in many ways of the modern lifestyle, the survey may have highlighted a gulf of understanding between what parents believed their kids were doing and what they actually get up to.  99 percent of boys and 94 percent of the girls surveyed said they played video games.

Perhaps the push in family based gaming, or a wider acceptance of gaming as a mainstream activity (Wii, I’m looking at you) has resulted in a 90 percent survey feedback around the question of parents playing video games with their offspring.

More numbers on page 2