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3rd September 2021
09:17am BST
On average, parents allowed their children to play video games for 2.2 hours per day prior to the pandemic.
Since the pandemic began, that average has increased to 3.1 hours per day and some parents believe that it has actually helped their child's social skills.
Out of 1,000 parents recently surveyed, 40 per cent think video games help with social skills.
Other positive skills parents attributed to video games included logical thinking (62.9 per cent), happiness (60.5 per cent), reaction time (49.7 per cent) and creativity (45.8 per cent).
While some believe that their child spending time playing video games is a positive thing, there are also a lot of parents who think the opposite.
64% of parents believe video games cause addiction development, while more than half of all parents surveyed are also worried about eye damage from prolonged screen time.
As well as that, almost all parents when asked said they believe that video games have even more influence on their child’s life than social media.
While parents admitted that they have allowed their children to spend more time playing video games since the start of the pandemic, they also admitted to supervising their child's gaming habit more.
More than half of parents monitored their children while they played games, with 58 per cent physically staying in the same room throughout the session.
Others relied on online parental controls to do the supervision for them. Whatever the method, most parents chose to restrict play to certain times (57.5 per cent) or only allow games after homework was completed (56.1 per cent).
What do you think?
Do you believe that playing video games is useful for your child's development or do you think the less time your child plays games the better?Explore more on these topics:
