Parents proud of their “precocious” game-playing children Gaming has become a part of our children’s lives. The market is overwhelmed with thousands of new titles which cover a wide spectrum of ages. To many parents, special occasions like holidays and birthdays are indissolubly connected with the process of buying the latest video games for their children. But do parents really know what exactly they’re giving their children?

The Greek Insafe Node has assembled valuable qualitative feedback concerning the attitude of Greek parents and minors towards video games. Unfortunately parents have proven themselves indifferent on the content of the games their children are playing.

Either they are not aware of the PEGI ratings, or, when they are, they do not necessarily take them into account. Some of them even state that they are proud when their children are able to play games that are designed for older ages. In this way, they believe that their children are smarter and more able than their peers, neglecting the issue of content rating in many cases.

On the other hand, even if the parents prevent their children from playing inappropriate games, youngsters seem to have found a solution. A primary school pupil recently said to us when asked why he was visiting an internet cafe even though he has access to a computer and the internet at home: “I go there in order to play the games my parents don’t allow me to”. Another child told us: “when I want to buy a new game, I go to the store and try out every new title demonstrated for free … even if this title is not for my age”.

The approach of the Greek Media is not helpful either in most cases. Newspaper articles, TV and radio reports overemphasise the “dark” side of games with expressions that can only spread panic to the public such as “Computer games: inappropriate for children” or “children addicted to violence”.  What is actually needed is a more cool-headed approach in order to raise parents’ awareness of the issues surrounding computer games. The Greek awareness node has been putting a lot of effort to raise such awareness through various means, for example by keeping informing the public about the PEGI ratings.

Keywords: PEGI, gaming, Greece