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60% Of Kids Play Games Every Day
Next Generation has a piece up stating that, according to a JuniorSenior Research poll, something like 60% of all children play video games every day. From the article: "39% of the children polled said they were happy to pay a high price for games they especially wanted, and said they had saved up to buy a particular game. A third of children say their friends are the primary resource for information about new games, signaling the absolute importance of playground evangelists. Surprisingly a quarter of kids say advertising is a key source of information, while only 10% say they rely on TV shows."
"39% of the children polled said they were happy to pay a high price for games they especially wanted"
From my experience it's usually mummy and daddy doing the paying, despite what the children say.
If I have nothing to hide, you have no reason to search me
It now costs more to amuse a child than it once did to educate his father.
Secondly, I give very little credence to polls like this inthe first place. Kids are much more likely to answer polls in untruthful ways, whether it be to impress their friends or because they don't quite understand the questions. Remember those drug surveys you had to take in high school (if you're in the 20 something crowd like me)? How many of your friends ever answered those correctly? Further, even the slightest change in the wording of the questions could probably change the answers significantly.
Not an extremely useful survey at all, but definitely interesting for stimulating conversation of the topic at hand.
I'd say knowing how kids spend their time, and that old standbys like books and television have dropped so much in popularity is definitely worth knowing.
As for your other suggested surveys? There would be no way to see how M-rated games "negatively affect" children, as it would be easy to lie about it. Beyond that, once you're past a certain age, you aren't really affected by it. You realize that it's just a game.
If you ask me, that survey seems like an even bigger waste of time and money because it'd be damn near impossible to get meaningful results.
Goo goo g'joob.
Of couse so many kids play games after a long day of school and doing your homework it is good to play a game to relax and have fun.