While 74 percent of children between the ages of 6-15 in Turkey stated that they play digital games, it was determined that almost half of them devote approximately 2 hours or more per day to this activity on the weekends.
Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) announced the results of the “2024 Children’s Information Technologies Usage Survey”. Accordingly, 91.3 percent of children in the 6-15 age group in Turkey use the internet, while 74 percent reported playing digital games.
When examined by gender and age group, it was recorded that 82.8 percent of boys and 64.8 percent of girls played digital games. This rate was 80.6 percent for boys in the 6-10 age group, 70.6 percent for girls, 85 percent for boys in the 11-15 age group, and 58.7 percent for girls. 90.8 percent of children who played digital games stated that they did so regularly.
It was determined that 25.6 percent of these children played digital games for approximately 2 hours or more per day on weekdays, and 41.8 percent on weekends.
During this period, 21.8 percent of children in the 6-10 age group and 29.8 percent in the 11-15 age group played digital games on weekdays. These rates were recorded as 37.4 percent and 46.6 percent, respectively, over the weekend. 40.1 PERCENT OF CHILDREN PLAYED MORE THAN PLANNED Children who regularly play digital games were also asked about their personal thoughts on this. 46.3 percent of the children stated that their parents thought they played too much games.
40.1 percent of these children reported that they played more games than they planned, 35.6 percent said that playing games caused them to neglect their responsibilities, 29.9 percent reported that they spent too much time playing games, and 23.4 percent reported that they felt restless and unhappy when they were not playing digital games. THEY READ LESS BOOKS TO BE ABLE TO SPEND MORE TIME IN FRONT OF THE SCREEN The children were also asked about the reasons for the time they spent in front of the screen, such as using computers, cell phones or smartphones, the internet and social media, playing digital games and watching TV. Accordingly, 34.4 percent of the children stated that they read fewer books because they spent more time in front of the screen.
This was followed by 33.3 percent studying less, 25.5 percent spending less time with their family, 18.6 percent meeting face-to-face with friends and playing less games and 17.2 percent sleeping less.
