ISFE CEO Simon Little said: “We are delighted to see that parental involvement in children’s in-game spending is increasing and that there is good awareness of our PEGI age-ratings. We are always looking for ways to do more for our players as an industry and have engaged in information campaigns across Europe to encourage parents to have a dialogue with their children about their online activity and, where appropriate, to use the parental controls to limit or block spending, to set game play time and to control online interaction and privacy settings.”
Three quarters of 6-15 year olds in Germany, Spain, Italy, UK and France are video game players, accounting for over 24 million across the five GameTrack European markets surveyed.
According to the GameTrack survey:
- Around a third of parents allow their children to spend money in-game. At a European level this has decreased since last year (42% in 2018 down to 36 % in 2019).
- The vast majority (8 in 10) of parents whose children spend money in-game have an agreement of some kind with the child. This has seen an increase on last year (from 79% to 85%). Parents who are video game players themselves are more likely to have an agreement (85% vs 89%).
- Two-thirds of people have heard of PEGI at European level and this is relatively comparable to last year, with the age-rating symbols being the most well-known still.
Simon Little continued: “Video games deliver experiences that enrich the everyday cultural lives of more than half of all Europeans, set new standards in innovation, artistry, education and inspire new ways of understanding and interacting with the world around us. Encouraging responsible and balanced video game play is key to ensuring that our children enjoy all the benefits of this unique medium. Both industry and parents have an important part to play.”
GameTrack is conducted by Ipsos MORI and is commissioned by ISFE. The full survey can be accessed [here].
Twitter: @ISFE_Games
- All respondents are parents of a child aged up to 15 years old who play games.
- Data was weighted using GameTrack measurements to be representative of the population on 3 attributes: Demographics (age/gender), household composition (age of children), and whether the parent responding to the survey is a video game player themselves.
- Weighting was also applied to ensure that results shown at a total level are equally weighted across each GameTrack European market. I.e. each individual country contributes 20% of the results shown at European level (across the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy).
- GameTrack Italy was launched in Q4 2019, therefore EU aggregated results are not comparable vs 2018 study. We are comparing results at country specific level.
- Fieldwork conducted in May 2018 and October 2019 re-contacting parents who participated in the GameTrack survey from Q1 and Q2 2019.
ISFE ensures that the voice of a responsible video games ecosystem is heard and understood, that its creative and economic potential is supported and celebrated, and that video game players around the world continue to enjoy great gaming experiences.
