Parenting Generation Game report overview

Internet Matters CEO Carolyn Bunting and Three UK CEO David Dyson provide insight on the state of gaming in the UK and highlight the collaborative nature of the new partnership.

This section outlines the key findings from the research highlighting  the following:

• Growth of gaming as 81% of parents say their children game online
• A third of all parents allow their children to play games with higher age ratings than their age
• Parents believe risks on social media differ to the risks found in gaming with over half of parents concerned about online grooming in gaming.
• Children’s love of gaming is extending to include peripheral screen-based activities to support their interest in gaming.
• Parents credit their children’s gaming with the development of a range of social and technical skills
• Parents, especially mums, who have less familiarity with gaming, are keen for more insight and support

This section provides insight into the research methodology which includes a quantitative survey to provide robust data and qualitative online community to get further insight.

This section captures how children of different ages games, on and offline and across devices. It also provides stats on the frequency and types of games children play.

This section identifies ways that children interact with gaming outside of the game itself. It also outlines certain activities that parents are concerned that may put children at risk.

To understand the online safety concerns specific to gaming, we asked parents to rank a series of potential risks. This section outlines these risks and levels of concern.

See what parents tell us are the benefits of letting their children game. Many of the responses are centered around skill development.

This section looks at the ways parents mediate and their levels of understanding of what their children are doing while gaming. More than half of parents with tweens and teens believe they have a firm grasp on what their limits are for gaming time.

In this section, we look at parents views on what type of support they need in order to help children develop good online gaming habits. There is a high expectation from the industry to offer them the tools they need to support their children with over a third expressing a need for more support.