According to a recent survey across the Middle East, Turkiye and Africa (META) region, 18% of parents surveyed in South Africa believe that their children play games that are inappropriate for their age – but that is not the whole story.
Based on the wider survey, boys are more prone to such behaviour than girls – 50% of boys and 43% of girls have violated age guidelines when playing games on their computers.
It’s possible that parents tend to exaggerate the problem of violating age restrictions in computer games, or children are not always aware of these restrictions. According to the children themselves (those surveyed in South Africa), 24% of them play computer games that are inappropriate for their age – a figure that is higher than what the surveyed parents believe.
Playing computer games is a common way for youngsters to spend their free time. According to the survey, 35% of children in South Africa play computer games 1-3 times a week for a couple of hours, while slightly less children (24%) spend 1-2 hours daily gaming.
“Parents often worry that their children spend too much time playing computer games,” says Seifallah Jedidi, head of consumer channel for META at Kaspersky. “Of course, it is important to ensure that the child follows a routine, gets enough sleep, takes a break from the screen, and is physically active, however parents should not blame computer games for everything.
“Parents should take a proactive position in this area, be interested in the latest products offered by the video game industry, and, of course, understand their children’s gaming preferences and pay attention to the age limits marking. It’s worth mentioning that today, there is a wide variety of games on offer, many of which include educational materials, and so we recommend not to prohibit this type of leisure, but rather to seek a compromise.”
To keep children safe online, Kaspersky recommends that parents:
- Pursue interest in what games your children play. Ideally, you should try those games yourself. This will help build more trust in your family relationships and help you to understand what your child is interested in.
- If you notice that your child plays a lot, try to understand the reasons for this and also answer the question of whether they have an alternative that they like, ask what they would like to do besides gaming and try to engage them with another interesting hobby.
- Be informed about current cyber threats and talk to your children about the risks they may face online; teach them how to resist online threats and recognise the tricks of scammers.
- Use a parental control program on your child’s device, for example, Kaspersky Safe Kids. It will allow you to control the applications downloaded on the device or set a schedule for when these applications can be used.
*The survey entitled “Growing Up Online” was conducted by Toluna research agency at the request of Kaspersky in 2023-2024. The study sample included 10,000 online interviews (5,000 parent-child pairs, with children aged 3 to 17 years) in 5 countries: Türkiye, South Africa, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.