The BBC reports "more than 75% of parents are concerned about the content of video games" - or rather, parents in the UK, France, Italy and Germany. Having looked over these statistics, they seem pretty dodgy to me. For example, in answering the question "how do your children most often play video games?" 63% report that their kids play on their own, whilst only 5% play online. Most likely the online statistic is much higher, and the parents are simply unaware that just because little Jimmy is in his bedroom by himself, it doesn't mean he isn't trash talking on Xbox Live.

Similarly, "more than half of children played games on consoles, 32% on PCs, 9% played games online and 4% played on a mobile phone." How exactly one plays online without using a console, PC or mobile phone, I'm not exactly sure.

Interestingly, only 66% of parents believed they should be the most influential in deciding what games are suitable for their children - presumably leaving at least 9% of parents who are concerned about content, but don't decide which games their children should play.

Basically I think these statistics are pretty flawed due to the respondents not understanding the question - what one parent sees as PC gaming, another will see as online gaming. The default attitude still seems to be buy the kids what they want, without checking out the content first, and then loudly complain if they happen to catch little Jimmy murdering virtual hookers (which I seem to recall is the aim of the Grand Theft Auto series, ages 3 and up, right guys?). Perhaps if more than one in five children played games most often with their family (a statistic more likely to include siblings rather than adults), parents would be less concerned about the content of games because they would be playing them as well.