Abstract
To determine the extent to which video games include alcohol and tobacco content and assess the association between playing them and alcohol and smoking behaviors in adolescent players in Great Britain. Assessment of substance in the 32 UK bestselling video games of 2012/2013; online survey of adolescent playing of 17 games with substance content; and content analysis of the five most popular games. A total of 1,094 adolescents aged 11–17 years were included as participants. Reported presence of substance content in the 32 games; estimated numbers of adolescents who had played games; self-reported substance use; semiquantitative measures of substance content by interval coding of video game cut scenes. Nonofficial sources reported substance content in 17 (44 percent) games but none was reported by the official Pan European Game Information (PEGI) system. Adolescents who had played at least one game were significantly more likely ever to have tried smoking (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 2.70, 95 percent confidence interval [CI] 1.75–4.17) or consumed alcohol (adjusted OR 2.35, 95 percent CI 1.70–3.23). In the five most popular game episodes of alcohol actual use, implied use and paraphernalia occurred in 31 (14 percent), 81 (37 percent), and 41 (19 percent) intervals, respectively. Tobacco actual use, implied use, and paraphernalia occurred in 32 (15 percent), 27 (12 percent), and 53 (24 percent) intervals, respectively. Alcohol and tobacco content is common in the most popular video games but not reported by the official PEGI system. Content analysis identified substantial substance content in a sample of those games. Adolescents who play these video games are more likely to have experimented with tobacco and alcohol.
Highlights
In 2015, the UK video gaming market was estimated to be worth e5.8 billion, the third biggest in the world.[1,2] around 54 percent of UK adolescents play video games online,[3] parental concern over exposure to inappropriate content while playing video games appears to be lower than for other media.[3]
Age classification of UK video games is the responsibility of the Video Standards Council, which applies age ratings based on content descriptors assigned by the Pan European Game Information (PEGI) system to help parents decide whether game content is suitable for their children.[5,6]
For the 39 identified games, we searched for reported presence or absence of alcohol and tobacco content in the official content descriptors provided by the PEGI,[6] the official game developer Web sites, Amazon.co.uk[30] and game.co.uk[31] retail Web sites; and the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)[32] and Common Sense Media (CSM)[33] Web sites, which provide information and reviews on a variety of media, including video games
Summary
In 2015, the UK video gaming market was estimated to be worth e5.8 billion, the third biggest in the world.[1,2] around 54 percent of UK adolescents play video games online,[3] parental concern over exposure to inappropriate content while playing video games appears to be lower than for other media.[3] While 80 percent of children age 10–15 are estimated to play packaged or online video games with an age rating higher than their age, over half of British parents are unaware of the content this exposes them to.[4]. Age classification of UK video games is the responsibility of the Video Standards Council, which applies age ratings based on content descriptors assigned by the Pan European Game Information (PEGI) system to help parents decide whether game content is suitable for their children.[5,6] The. PEGI system is self-regulatory and voluntary, and age ratings are assigned based on a content declaration form submitted by the game developer. 293 industry signatories across 28 countries use the PEGI system.[5]
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