Parents who complain about games don’t play with their kids
The AP announced the results of their study on how parents interact with their kids through games. While this has been picked up on a few blogs though I’m really surprised there hasn’t been more.
I have a couple issues with the article itself. Namely that they only interviewed very stereotypical people including a stay at home dad who plays games 40+ hours a week and parents that complain about the game content, but let their kids play for 25+ hours a week.
Overall though, I think this study shows what’s wrong with the current perception of video games. According to the study almost 70% of parents never or almost never play games with their kids. I’m sure these are the same parents that wouldn’t hesitate to go hiking, play ball, or even go to a movie with their children.
I relish the day when I can play games with my child and I’m going to make that a social experience, just as I would anything else they spend time doing. I want to expose them to new worlds, ideas and ways of thinking, and video games can be a great way to do that.
Unfortunately it looks like most parents are relegating video games as something that should be done alone, and is beneath their involvement, and I believe that is the biggest issue. We need to continue to be involved in our children’s lives, and that means taking part in their activities as much as we can.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 13th, 2007 at 10:47 am and is filed under General Rambling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
November 29th
2007 at 11:57 am
Just a note … Erin Hoffman gave a fantastic talk at the Montreal Game Summit about ‘Why Parents Make Great Game Developers’. One of her points was that game developers have a greater understanding of their kids culture and are more informed about games and game content.
I completely agree that most parents just don’t understand what their kids are playing or the underlying themes that their kids are dealing with. Parents certainly need to be made more aware of the benefits and pitfalls of gaming without the usual media scaremongery. Sadly, the media prefer to concentrate on sensationalism and paint a very negative picture rather than actually addressing all the good that games can do within the right context and with parental guidance.
When I say parental guidance, I’m not talking about outright censorship but moreso encouraging parents to better understand the themes and interactions their children have with the langauge of games and how they can be used to encourage growth or help deal with real-world situations.
The best way to do that would be to actually get involved with what kids are playing instead of believing all the hype you see in the media.