Parents not satisfied with Web games rating system

Although a majority of children in the country spend a large portion of their free time playing online games, most parents are not satisfied with the current rating system to protect children from adult content, a survey conducted by the Child Welfare League Foundation suggested yesterday.

The foundation recently surveyed more than 1,000 parents with ­children under the age of 12 about their attitudes toward their children’s online gaming behavior. The survey showed that although most parents are worried about the problem of addiction to online games, as many as seven out of every 10 children spend most of their free time playing such games.

Over half (54 percent) of those surveyed said that they are not satisfied with the current rating system for online games and only about 27 percent indicated they had a clear understanding of the types of games their children play online.

The survey also showed that four out of five parents believe there are not enough child-­appropriate games on the market. As many as 70 percent of parents are worried about their children playing online games, their biggest concerns being that their children “spend too much time playing,” have access to “inappropriate content” and “make friends who exert a bad influence.”

Foundation executive director Alicia Wang (王育敏) said that many online games rated for a general audience are not child-friendly because they contain inappropriate content relating to sex, violence or gambling.

“Quality online games should have five important characteristics: They should be educational, contain age-appropriate content, provide playtime controls, facilitate parent-child interaction and allow game monitoring,” Wang said.

The director said quality games should allow children to benefit from playing games while also enabling parental control.

The foundation called on game developers to design games that are suitable for children, family friendly and nurture parent-child relationships, saying this problem is especially relevant during the summer vacation when children have more leisure time.