Microsoft commissioned a study from Opinium, based on a sample of 12,000 European parents, including more than 2,000 French parents; it explores the main trends in video games and how they are played within families.
The results reveal that, for parents, playing video games with their children means relational closeness with them and lets them build bonds more easily than, for example, watching television.
Around three-quarters of parents (74%) play video games as a family, and do so 8 times a month on average, and even say that it strengthens parent–child bonds; 69% think it helps them understand their children better. Video games are therefore among the French’s favourite family leisure activities, ahead of sport or board games, which bring families together 5 times a month on average.
The French are in line with the European average; Spain, however, has the highest rate of gaming families in Europe (3 families out of 4 play together), and it is the Italians who play together most often, an average of 10 times a month.
The study also reveals that parents say they know about their children’s online activity: 77% explain that they know exactly which online games their children play.
Concern remains focused on potential encounters online: 62% of families admit that they are never completely sure who their children are talking to.
Yet parental control settings are available today on current gaming platforms, including Xbox One, Windows 10 PCs and tablets, and smartphones. But only 39% of the parents surveyed for this study have set restrictions on in-game purchases or defined screen time limits. Nearly a quarter of parents (26%) have not yet set up any parental control feature on their children’s devices.
In conclusion, three tips to put into practice in this new year: get familiar with the parental control features of devices (screen time limits, supervision of online purchases), be clear about the rules set in the family (apply the 3-6-9-12 milestones!), and get involved (the best way to understand your children’s pastime is to pick up a controller and play!). It is important to try for yourself the activities that occupy your children. And who knows… you might even enjoy it!
Child and adolescent therapist, psychoanalyst
