While many parents are comfortable with children playing video games for four or more hours a week during summer break, most feel they should be restricted to no more than three hours during the school year
CES, the world’s largest technology and consumer electronics show, kicks off this week and includes a forum exploring the current landscape between technology and children. Video games are often one of the first technological touch points for younger audiences and new YouGov Omnibus research reveals that, among other benefits, parents (of children under 18) view them as a powerful incentive for their offspring.
The survey finds that video games can be used to motivate children - in both to encourage good behavior and dissuade bad. Both parents and non-parents tend to agree that kids should not be able to play video games if they either behave poorly or do poorly in school, but parents are especially likely to reward video game playing time for good behavior (60% vs 52% of non-parents).
Aside from using video games to motivate children, parents also see additional benefits in allowing kids to game. YouGov’s research finds that parents are more likely than non-parents to agree both that video games can help kids build teamwork skills (48% vs 39% of non-parents) and allow stay in touch with one another (44% vs 35% of non-parents).
The survey also finds that many parents see games as a platform for shared experiences with their children. More than half (54%) believe that playing games with their kids can strengthen parent-child bonds. To this end, 72% of parents with children under the age of 18 have played a video game with their child(ren).
The data suggests that while an overwhelming majority of parents (94%; 93% nat rep) believe that children should be allowed to play video games, most think a child’s time spent playing games should have limits.
During the school year, a majority of parents (61%) believe that children should be limited to no more than three hours of video game playing a week. However, this changes when it comes to the summer break, when over half of parents (52%) believe children should be able to play four or more hours a week.
Read more results from this poll here
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