Children and Video Games: What Do Parents Think? A Study on Dutch Chinese parent’s attitude towards children’s playing of video games

Today, video-game-playing has become one of the most popular entertainment among children and one of the hottest topics among parents. As the devices are more private and the screens are smaller, many parents find that it is more and more complicated to monitor children’s gaming activities. In China, many parents have concerns about video games, especially the possible negative effects on children’s study.Then, do Chinese parents’ in the Netherlands share the same concerns? What are their attitude towards children’s playing of video games as compared to local Dutch parents? Through semi-structured interviews, this research explores parents’ personal thoughts, awareness and method of parenting regarding to children’s gaming activities. 9 Dutch Chinese parents and 3 local Dutch parents were interviewed. The result shows that in general Chinese parents living in the Netherlands have a more negative attitude towards video games than Dutch parents do, though most of them also admit that video games may have positive effects. The effects of video games on study and eye sight are two mostly frequently mentioned reasons when they explain their attitude. As for the strategies and style of parenting, most Chinese parents think they are more restrictive and stricter than Dutch parents, but more lenient than traditional Chinese parents, which could be the result of a combination of Chinese and Dutch culture. It is also interesting to see that Chinese parents with Dutch partners looks more relaxed than those who have Chinese partners. In comparison with Dutch parents, Chinese parents’ awareness of PEGI rating system is lower. Since China has not introduced any rating system for television, film and video games, it is not natural for Chinese parents to be aware of PEGI and to use it. It can be seen that parents of girls are slightly more protective than parents of boys, although the differences are not very significant. The level of integration, children’s age, type of games and device have more significant association with parents’ attitude.