Press Release
National
Institute on Media and the Family Calls on Video Game Industry to
Provide Honest Statistics
Parents
and Legislators Need Accurate Data From Independent Research
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 20, 2003
Contact: Blois Olson, Brad Robideau,
New School Communications,
651-221-1999
(Minneapolis)
- The world's leading organization studying the effects of
media on children today called on the video game industry group
Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA) to report honestly
about their research concerning video game user habits.
Dr. David Walsh,
president and founder of the National Institute on Media and the
Family, said parents and Congress should not allow a recent market
research study released by the industry to mislead them about children's
video game playing habits and parent's feelings about video content.
"They must
not have surveyed average parents," Dr. David Walsh said. "The
only way the ISDA could have gotten their results was to survey
a preselected sample of video game owners. That is like asking NRA
members how they feel about guns."
Independent
research shows that a maximum of sixty-seven percent of parents
are aware of the content of the computer and video games their children
play. When you ask junior high students about their parents' knowledge,
the number drops to fifteen percent.
In contrast,
the IDSA data claims that ninety-six percent of parents are aware
of the content of the computer and video games their children play.
The IDSA also claims that parents are present for eighty-nine percent
of sales of games to children and teens. This flies in the face
of other research showing that seventy-five percent of teens say
their parents do not know all the games they own.
Research results
can become skewed if the sample is not truly representative of all
parents or if survey questions are worded in such a way that they
prompt respondents to give particular answers. The new study by
the IDSA did not appear to have asked objectively unbiased questions
to a truly representative sample of parents, according to the National
Institute on Media and the Family.
"This is
similar to studies that the tobacco industry has previously done,"
Walsh said. "Studies like these can mislead parents and policymakers
concerned about the sex and violence in the games children play
today."
The National
Institute on Media and the Family is an independent non-partisan,
non-sectarian, nonprofit organization. The Institute's mission is
to maximize the benefits and minimize the harm mass media have on
children through research and education. For more information visit
www.mediafamily.org on
the Web or call 1-888-672-5437.
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