In April the video game site What They Play reported that parents were more concerned with sexual content in games than violence or profanity, raising a few questions about the priorities of video game ratings and content that may or may not be harmful for children. Now, the site has released a new survey, asking parents what would most worry them when sending a child to sleep over at a friends house. While the results are being trumpeted around the Internet as "proof" that parents fear video games as much as other social issues such as pornography or alcohol abuse, the truth is that this data tells us very little about the real-world fears of parents.
We need to look at this data a little more critically than the way it is presented by What They Play; it doesn't tell us what "parents" think, it tells us what readers of this particular blog think. This was simply a survey on the site, so not only is it impossible to tell if respondents even have children, but whether these numbers are in fact a truly representative population other than What They Play readers. It turns out that the thing that most scares parents has nothing to do with games: smoking marijuana came in as the greatest fear by a huge margin, capturing 50 percent of the vote. That's much higher than Grand Theft Auto's 19 percent. Of course, saying "Pot use much more concerning to parents than Grand Theft Auto," wouldn't have gotten the site as many links. D.A.R.E. already has its funding; games are the hot button issue, and the results are being spun to take advantage of that.
It's also important look at the actual question and contrast it with the headline for the accompanying blog post (Parents More Concerned About Video Games Than Alcohol or Pornography). The survey didn't ask about video games, it asked about whether parents would worry about their children playing Grand Theft Auto. A very specific game that again, isn't representative of the industry. This is a title that sold in the millions almost before it was released, and that talking heads on news shows spouted poorly researched "facts" about.
Grand Theft Auto is a lightning rod for both the gaming industry and those who wish to demonize it, and to make the case that parents' feelings on this one particular video game sum up their fears about the entire hobby is beyond absurd. It would be like asking parents if they would let their children watch Hostel and then trumpet the fact that parents are concerned about the movie industry. Grand Theft Auto is a name with much baggage; there's a reason it was named in the survey—to get people to click on it—and left as vague as "video games" in the headline—so the data looked more important than it is. The game What They Play used to drive their data isn't named at all in their blog post; it merely says "certain video games."
Lastly, this doesn't reflect was really concerns parents; it merely reflects their choice between four possibilities. What if you put some other choices in there, such as lack of supervision or even finding a gun? An academic study of a large sample of parents on the issue is worth paying attention to—games are a major concern for some parents, but shoddy data like this survey being passed around and sensationalized isn't doing anyone any favors.
In perhaps the best twist on this story, the image accompanying What They Play's "analysis" of the data includes a completely nude woman, her breasts almost completely exposed, pouting her lips at the reader while nearly spilling a martini. The "parents' guide to video games" remains classy.
