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A Quarter Of Kids Playing Online Games With Strangers

Image by StartupStockPhotos from Pixabay

New research from digital identity security company, ID Crypt Global, reveals that a huge proportion of primary school-aged children are playing video games online and, in doing so, at least a quarter interact with anonymous strangers.

ID Crypt Global has analysed the online gaming habits of young children in the UK to understand how they’re gaining access to online games, what games they’re playing, and who they are playing them with.

The majority of adults in the UK understand the potential risks associated with online gaming, from digital ID theft and fraud to predatory behaviour from strangers, but children are less aware of such issues.

Despite the risks, it appears that a lot of young children are being given access to online games, access which frequently comes via smartphones.

17% of 3-4 year olds have access to a smartphone

ID Crypt Global’s research reveals that smartphones are owned by 17% of 3-4 year–olds, 20% of 5-7 year-olds, and 53% of 8-11 year-olds.

49% of 3-17 year-olds use smartphones to play online games, making it the second-most popular way of playing after traditional games consoles (59%).

Whatever method of access they're using, online gaming is incredibly popular among children as young as primary school age.

18% of 3-4 year olds playing online games

18% of 3-4 year-olds are already playing online games, as are 38% of 5-7 year-olds, and 69% of 8-11 year-olds.

As for the types of games being played, almost half of boys (47%) and girls (46%) aged 3-17 are playing creative and building games such as Minecraft.

Action/Adventure games (Boys: 45%, Girls: 40%) are a popular choice as are shooters (Boys: 38%, Girls: 28%), the latter of which might be of concern to parents.

25% of children playing with strangers

But more concerning is the fact that 25% of kids aged 8-17 are playing games online with complete strangers, and 22% chat to people they do not know while online gaming.

As well as the potential risks stemming from children talking to strangers, there are also financial concerns when it comes to children gaming online.

Online games often require debit or credit card information to be provided and stored in order to buy the games. But the modern gaming phenomenon of in-game purchases means that the cost of games can continue indefinitely and, if kids have access to their parents’ stored card details, they can pay for these purchases without their parent’s immediate knowledge.

An example of this is the much-reported story of “Billy Smith”, an 11-year-old boy who spent £464 on in-game micropayments without his parent’s knowledge.

This raises further concerns about the uses of digital identities when it comes to e-commerce and how easily they can be misused when stored in a centralised public infrastructure, whether that be innocently by children, or intentionally by criminals.

CEO and Founder of ID Crypt Global, Lauren Wilson-Smith, commented:
“It’s worrying that the online gaming space enables kids to talk freely with strangers in environments that are often unmonitored. With the best will in the world, parents are unable to monitor every moment of their child’s gaming, so it raises the question of what gaming companies can do to mitigate this risk.

But it’s not just online safety that’s a concern, financial security is also a big risk. Aside from kids being able to process payments on their parent’s accounts, there is a danger of hackers being able to steal these stored payment details due to PKIs being centralised - stored and managed by a single third-party.

We believe it’s vital that Decentralised PKIs become the norm, thus giving people far more control over the security and use of their digital identities - including bank details - by removing the need for one third-party to be entrusted with the data, instead using blockchain technology to ensure tighter security.”

Data tables and sources can be viewed online, here.