Play’s Republic

An industry newsletter this AM points to a new Harris poll on videogames and kids:

Percentage of households where children report that their parents limit “how much time they can spend playing games:”

* 54 percent of 8-12-year-olds
* 38 percent of 13-18s

Additionally, “71 percent of the younger group said they must abide by rules on the kinds of games they can play.” This number drops to 42 percent among teens.

Significantly–at least for critics of the video game industry–some of these the rules are ignored: “90% of boys and 50% of girls say they have played violent M-rated games. Many say they have received M-rated games as gifts from adults.”

The focus on M-rated (i.e., “Mature”) games is interesting to me, as it has been an issue of focus in a lot of research: One prominent poll and statistical analysis from Macarthur focused entirely on kids’ access to M-rated games, and included half a dozen recommendations on how better to restrict young persons’ access to “mature content.” Given the extraordinary potential for research and thought offered by the growing presence of video games in our culture, why are we pouring money and time into whether 15-year olds are able to buy a copy of Grand Theft Auto? Imagine, for a moment, that Prof. Tinkcom devoted an entire course to the subject of “Kids Who Sneak into R-Rated and Adult films.”

One reason for this research emphasis, of course, is because its so easily quantified. Numbers talk. Subtler reasons abound, of course, and Sutton-Smith, in Ambiguity of Play, points to several.