Survey reveals that 86% of parents don’t follow age restrictions on video games

Video games have been criticised by politicians and activists for years, especially ones that contain violence. To tackle this, most countries have an age restriction policy in place to make sure that children don't get their hands on something inappropriate. However, it turns out that many parents simply don't pay attention to these age ratings.

A survey of more than 2,000 parents was recently conducted by Childcare UK. The study found that a massive 86 percent of parents don't follow age restrictions on games. As Eurogamer points out, the survey also found that more than 50 percent of parents allowed their children to play games rated for ages 18+ with no supervision or knowledge of the source material.

Interestingly enough, there is a discrepancy between parents when it comes to film ratings versus game ratings. Around 18 percent of those surveyed said that they would not allow a 10-14 year old to watch an 18+ movie, and only 23 percent actually ignored film age ratings.

This age rating argument has risen again in large part due to the popularity of Fortnite across all age groups. The issue seems to be that while playing an online game, children can be subjected to various unfriendly experiences.

KitGuru Says: It is odd that the parents surveyed didn’t see the correlation between age ratings on both movies and games. Do you let your child play games aimed at a higher age-group?  

Become a Patron!