{"id":5432,"date":"2026-08-03T21:05:47","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T21:05:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=5432"},"modified":"2026-08-03T21:05:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T21:05:47","slug":"why-parents-are-still-afraid-of-video-games-after-50-years-and-how-a-gaming-nonprofits-new-workshops-are-trying-to-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=5432","title":{"rendered":"Why Parents Are Still Afraid of Video Games After 50 Years and How a Gaming Nonprofit\u2019s New Workshops Are Trying to Help"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<!-- do not apply CSS styles to this element! --><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\n\tIt\u2019s been nearly six decades since the first mainstream video games came out and parents in 2026 are just as worried about the potential impact gaming is having on their children today as their counterparts were in the 70s, according to new research from the nonprofit Games for Change.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=5430\">\u2018God of War\u2019: Dave Bautista in Talks For Kratos Role in Amazon Series After Ryan Hurst\u2019s Exit<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tIn her paper \u201cRaising Good Gamers: What Families Need to Know About Video Games and Well-Being,\u201d which was released in July by Games for Change, research director Rachel Kowert drew on analysis of nearly 200,000 media articles and social posts across 15 countries and seven languages to reveal on social media, negative sentiment about gaming outweighs positive sentiment by more than five to one (34% to 6%).<\/p>\n<p>\n\tKowert\u2019s work found parents\u2019 biggest concerns \u2014 screen time, addiction, and violent or age-inappropriate content \u2014 are based on common assumptions that are misaligned with the research. <\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cWhat I find most interesting is that the concerns that parents have today in 2026 are the same concerns that parents have had for the last 50 years: overexposure to inappropriate content, overuse and overdependence,\u201d Kowert tells<em> Variety<\/em>. \u201cSo the fact that they have the same concerns tells me as a researcher that we\u2019ve done a very poor job at getting the information out that we have in the research community to parents about what we know about what games are and what they aren\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tKowert notes that while society has repeated the pattern of being afraid of the effects of new types of media and entertainment throughout the centuries (including books, films and TV), the fears about gaming have persisted for longer.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cI do see it being specific to gaming for a few reasons,\u201d Kowert says. \u201cOne is because nothing has overtaken it. We have concerns about social media, but gaming is kind of different. It is also interactive. The other thing about gaming is with the media ecosystem we see a terrible violent crime happening and immediately it gets tagged with, \u2018Oh that person played video games.\u2019 And we\u2019ve seen that, again, for the last 50 years. So there is something unique about this conversation. And sometimes I get pushback where they say, \u2018Oh, well, social media has come.\u2019 OK, we also do have fears about social media, which we now see, but it hasn\u2019t replaced gaming because those fears still persist.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=5428\">Kevin Feige on \u2018Brand New Day\u2019 Breaking Records, Sadie Sink\u2019s Reveal and Tom Holland Getting a \u2018Restful Victory Lap\u2019 Before a Potential \u2018Spider-Man 5\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\tKowert\u2019s research found that nearly 60% of children say they want to play more games with their parents and suggested a system called \u201cSPACE\u201d for parents who want to engage: \u201c<strong>S<\/strong>how up with curiosity, <strong>P<\/strong>lay together, <strong>A<\/strong>djust for context, <strong>C<\/strong>ultivate digital citizenship, and <strong>E<\/strong>stablish boundaries together.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s interestingly an argument for allowing gameplay at a younger age, so that you do start to build a foundation,\u201d Games for Change chief program and operating officer Arana Shapiro says. \u201cWith the assumption that because so many kids are playing games, teens especially, that if you assume that your child is going to end up playing video games one way or another, then laying that foundation becomes extremely important so that you can fall back. Otherwise, they\u2019re stepping into something that they\u2019ve had no experience in. So like anything else as a parent, it\u2019s a little bit of a responsibility to know how you\u2019re going to lay that foundation to allow for a healthy growth as they get older.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\tGames for Change initiative Raising Good Gamers launched a pilot parent workshop earlier this year for parents that asked families to build their own code of conduct for gaming, setting shared expectations that their children helped shape. By the end of the workshop, 82% of participants felt more confident talking with their children about gaming. <\/p>\n<p>\n\tThis September, the parenting workshop will be offered more widely through in-person events at community organizations across the U.S. and U.K., as well as through online webinars, with Kowert\u2019s SPACE framework included.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\u201cWe are trying to encourage curious parenting,\u201d Shapiro says. \u201cSo it\u2019s very obvious there\u2019s no way that we\u2019re going to lead a successful workshop or have a successful interaction with parents if we\u2019re just giving a laundry list of the games that are out there and what they should look for and what is good and what is bad because that\u2019s ever changing. What we\u2019re trying to do is create a method for helping parents understand how they can have the conversations with their children to understand what their kids are playing, what they like about it, why they want to play.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationobserver.com\/?p=5426\">This \u2018Spider-Man\u2019 Art Book Explores the Making of \u2018Brand New Day,\u2019 From Early Concept Sketches to Final Production Designs<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s been nearly six decades since the first mainstream video games came out and parents are just as worried about kids gaming now as they were then.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5431,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[293],"tags":[4271],"class_list":["post-5432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gaming","tag-games-for-change"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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