Playing games

In 2006 there was an online national survey on media uses by pre-teens and teenagers in Portugal, with 1353 participants (ages from 9 to 18 years old), integrated on the E-Generation project (part of the World Internet Project).
Playing games in mobile phones was one of the features with significant results: 27,4% mentioned this as a regular activity.
The results revealed some differences related with:
» gender - 31,9% boys; 21,3% girls
» age - 44,2% 9/12 years; 34,1% 13/15 years; 20,0% 16/18 years

I believe that the gender bias is an issue that still needs more in depth research. Kirsten Drotner wrote in Leisure Is Hard Work: Digital Practices and Future Competencies: “While this promotion is understandable in terms of the tremendous impact of the games industry on contemporary media output, much less is made of the fact that gaming remains the most gendered media practice amongst young people. Some researchers have claimed that girls’ relative lack of interest in gaming can be overcome by designing different types of games that fit girls’ genre preferences for relationships over action and construction over combat.”

Cardoso, C., Espanha, R. & Lapa, T. (2007). E-Generation: Os Usos de Media pelas Crianças e Jovens em Portugal. Lisboa: CIES/ISCTE – Centro de Investigação e Estudos. Available at: http://www.cies.iscte.pt/publicacoes/ficha.jsp?pkid=1515&a=1215379771608

Drotner, K. (2008). Leisure Is Hard Work: Digital Practices and Future Competencies. In David Buckingham (Ed.), Youth, Identity, and Digital Media (pp. 167–184). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Available at: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/dmal.9780262524834.167

Pictures: young boy sitting in a restaurant, playing a game on a mobile phone.