A new study has revealed that children play video games for a shocking 15 hours a week.
The research from McAfee also found that a stunning 94 percent of parents are concerned about the risks their children are exposed to while gaming, but nearly half of parents let their children play games that are above their age rating.
On average, children play video games for 2.13 hours a day, and 92 percent of parents let their children play at least an hour of games a day.
Eight percent admitted that they let their kids play more than five hours a day.
A new study has revealed that children play video games for a shocking nearly 15 hours a week. Pictured: Fortnite, one of the most popular video games in the world, attracting more than 40 million players worldwide to its battle royale-style tournaments
Parents are concerned about exposure to inappropriate content or nefarious people.
The study found that 62 percent of kids play games where they directly interact with other players, drastically increasing their risk of being targeted with inappropriate content or asked to share sensitive information.
The vast majority, 89 percent, of parents are aware of the dangers of this, with 71 percent particularly concerned about them being groomed to share sensitive details or being shown inappropriate content such as violence, sexual images or drugs.
‘Over the years gaming has grown dramatically in popularity and it’s now become an everyday habit for many people, particularly children,’ said Gary Davis, chief consumer security evangelist at McAfee.
‘There are many advantages to playing video games, and they can be a great tool at parents’ disposal during the summer months where they need to keep their children entertained while trying to manage everything else,’ Davis continued.
‘But, it is imperative that parents understand the risks to their children while playing video games, do their own research about the games that their children are playing and know how to provide proper guidance to their children to keep them safe online.’
A stunning 94 percent of parents are concerned about the risks their children are exposed to while gaming, but nearly half of parents let their children play games that are above their age rating. Pictured: A new entry in Microsoft’s popular Halo series, dubbed Halo Infinite, which will be exclusive to Xbox-branded consoles
While many parents do keep an eye on what their children are playing, 9 percent admit to not monitoring at all, and 6 percent don’t talk to their children about what is and isn’t appropriate behavior.
Additionally, 13 percent of parents admitted to letting children play games with age ratings more than 5 years over their own age.
This means that children as young as 12 could be playing games that have been exclusively rated for mature audiences due to intense portrayals of violence, strong sexual themes including nudity and rape, glamorization of use of drugs.