Violent and Sexual Content

Q: Are you concerned by the violent or sexual content in games that you play?

There is a marked difference here between Christian and non-Christian responses. Although the majority of respondents in both groups responded in the negative (they did not feel concerned) there are substantially more positive responses (they feel concerned) among Christians. Christians were twice as likely to express concern over violent content and more than one in four expressed concern over sexual content compared to non-Christians where not a single respondent was concerned with sexual content and only 7.4% were concerned with violent content.

Q: Are you concerned by the violent or sexual content in games that your children play?

These graphs exclude the responses of respondents that also indicated they had no children or none of their children played video games.

As with the content the adults themselves played there is a significant difference between non-Christian and Christian responses about game content for children. Christians were three times as likely to express concern about violent content for children. Non-Christians also expressed no concerns at all about sexual content for their children compared to Christians where over half of the respondents expressed concern and more than one in four expressed a strong sense of concern.

This, though, may also be due to the fact that non-Christians are more likely to use ESRB ratings when selecting content for their children, as shown in the Demographics section of this site, and therefore might be better informed about their children's gaming experience.

Summary:

Overall Christians expressed far greater concern about the content of their children's games as well as their own, especially regarding sexual content. Designers should avoid using sexual content when designing games for Christians, especially when aimed at younger Christians, even if the content is historically or contextually relevant. Christians seemed to indicate a higher tolerance for violent content but designers should be aware of the limits of that tolerance when designing for Christians and avoid gratuitous or extraneous violent content especially if it is not of historical or contextual necessity.