Survey Shows Parental Attitudes To Video Games

A new survey commissioned by VTech Electronics and performed by research firm Compas has gauged parental attitudes to video games, by interviewing Canadian parents with children aged three to eight. The survey, conducted with 500 parents by professional interviewers using computer aided telephone interviewing (CATI) between August 3-8, also found that 60 percent of respondents indicated that their eldest child in the age range currently plays games, and 81 percent of parents felt that children spent too much time playing video games. Further figures in the study, which was commissioned by a maker of educational game software, show that 76 percent of parents whose children currently do not play video games said they would buy video games that motivate children to get involved in learning, and 86 percent of parents felt that educational video games could be helpful for a child's development. Finally, the survey found that 76 percent of parents are concerned that the content of many video games is inappropriate for young children, but does not make it clear whether ESRB age ratings were taken into account when answering this question.