Get the Picture - Interactive media - Game playing households

Games: Game players: Children

Proportion of children playing games, and mean hours per fortnight by age, 2002, 2003 and 2006

In 2006, two-thirds of children (64 per cent) had played electronic or computer games outside of school hours during a school term in April 2006, a fall from 71 per cent in 2003. Boys were more likely to have played games than girls (77 per cent and 50 per cent respectively), and boys played for longer – an average of 9.3 hours per fortnight compared with 5.7 hours for girls. While the participation rate of all children declined in 2006, the average number of hours played by children increased slightly.

Playing games 2002, 2003 and 2006

Average time over two-week period, 2006

Two graphs: Proportion of children playing games, and mean hours per fortnight by age. The following table provides the data.

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	Boys	Girls	Children
Participation rate (% of all children)
2000	79%	58%	69%
2003	82%	59%	71%
2006	77%	50%	64%
Average number of hours
2003
5–8 year olds	7.0	4.5	5.9
9–11 year olds	9.2	5.7	7.7
12–14 year olds	11.2	6.0	9.2
All children	9.0	5.3	7.5
2006
5–8 year olds	7.1	4.6	6.1
9–11 year olds	9.2	5.7	7.8
12–14 year olds	11.8	7.0	10.1
All children	9.3	5.7	7.9

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Children’s Participation in Cultural and Leisure Activities (cat. no. 4901.0).

Notes:
During the two school weeks prior to interview in April each year.