New Research Finds Kids Playing Video Games at a Younger Age
By Andrew on Tuesday, June 5th, 2007 at 11:32 PM PST In Gamer Life
If you’re six and a half, you are likely to be playing video games.
Kids are playing video games at a younger age now, apparently, or at least according to new research by the NPD Group. The research shows that the average age of children playing video games has dropped to 6.7, and portable gaming is the biggest draw. In 2005 the average was 8.1 years for children.
And the effects of this drop in age? The industry better start recognizing this or else they’re doomed for failure. Or, at least the gaming companies that do recognize this will get the drop on everyone else.
According to my own research*, children were playing video games before the age of five in the mid-1980’s.
*Note: This research is limited to me begging my parents for a Nintendo when it first came out. This information should not be construed as scientific in any way, nor should it be used by anyone to make any conclusions about anything, whatsoever.
I really wish i wasnt in the peak of the gaming generation
atari started me off and it was the easiest way to keep me amused while my parents were busy.
And now im addicted to games (somewhat) and cant help but think “what could i have learnt with all that gaming time”
i dont think games should be filling in the TV roll of educating out children for us, there is nothing to gain from the early use of games, but lots to loose with kids getting more detatched from society and leading to many problems later in life.
This is just my view based on my life and all those i know.
children are just easy targets for marketing ploys form gaming to junk food etc.
too late now though.
This is precisely why parent involvement in their childrens’ lives is of utmost importance.
This isn’t so much a case of video games developers preying on children as parents denying responsibility for their children.