While Tsoof was doing his assignment on video game violence, I was shocked with the level of violence the kids were exposed to and it really got me scared. By the end of it, he also showed me some statistics about parents and that got me even more scared.
Parents and video games
Here is a list of figures from a US research into parents’ involvement and attitude towards playing video games:
– 50% of parents play computer and video games with their children
– 93% of computer and video games are purchased or rented while the parents are present
– 88% of games are purchased by adults
– 72% of parents believe video games are “fun for the entire family”
– 71% of parents are asked to play by their kids
– 66% of parents believe computer and video games provide good opportunities for them to socialize with their kids
– 63% of parents believe computer games are a positive part of their kids’ life
– 50% of parents claim that playing computer and video games with their children provides good opportunities to monitor the game content
10% of parents never check the official rating of the computer and video games their kids use
Now, I ask you, would you not feel like there must be someone to blame? Do not feel devastated after reading these figures?
Did you know when reading such things, people use a defense mechanism that says “It won’t happen to me”. I did the same. I said to myself, “I’m OK. My kids are not exposed to video games. We have never purchased any computer game in our life. We don’t have a game console at home”. But this mechanism only gives us a false illusion that we are safe, because we are not.