Some Data on US Parents...

ESA 2011 Essential Facts About the Computer and Videogame Industry (PDF). Retrieved from http://www.theesa.com/facts/pdfs/ESA_EF_2011.pdf

Got a bit side tracked with this data on parents and video games as I was doing my first post.

I think perhaps we are getting demographic data like these because the generation that are becoming parents now grew up with videogames in their daily lives and do not reject it outright? It's funny to see that more than half of the parents saw videogames as physical exercise...maybe they're referring to games like wii fit.

The statistics that 86% of time children received permission before purchasing or renting a game reminded me of the cartoons on the lecture slides last week. I think there's a bit of doubt about these numbers (perhaps the parents who responded to these questions lied because they thought it would be more socially acceptable for them to say that their children asked for permission even if they didn't really and that number doesn't tell us what kind of games they are permitting their child to borrow - for all we know it could be a R16 rated game for a 8 year old girl) but if we go with them, then the question of whose responsiblity - the game companies or the parents - is quite easily answered. If the parents are saying "Yes dear, of course you can go ahead and rent that R18 murder game on my Video Ezy membership - and make sure you go to that boy clerk because that batty old lady will ask too many questions," then there's no point in having a rating system.
The results also show that 57% thought playing with the children were a good way to monitor the game content (As opposed to the 85% who played with their kids just because they were asked to). This further supports the idea that parents are not monitoring their children as much as they should be.