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In Mexico, video games are one of the many forms of recreation and although they are played by people of all ages, when minors play them without supervision, especially in online modes, they are exposed to being victims of crimes, harassment or insults.
According to the National System for the Protection of Girls, Boys and Adolescents (Sippina), Mexico is a country with high consumption of video games and high preferences for playing online.
However, Sippina warns that in online modes, minors aged between 6 and 17 are exposed to risks such as the lack of regulation of gaming platforms, data collection by third parties, poorly designed and insecure platforms, exposure to inappropriate content, and cyberbullying.
Data from the National Survey of Audiovisual Content Consumption by the Federal Telecommunications Institute in 2022 indicate that of the girls, boys and adolescents who play video games, 84 percent interact with other people online. In addition, the most popular video games are fighting, racing, shooting, and battle games.
Meanwhile, through the OpiNNA Video Game survey – which involved 16,248 girls, boys and adolescents between 7 and 17 years old from across the country – Sippina revealed that eight out of ten use the multiplayer online mode; that is, about 12,835. Of them, around 1,280 children and adolescents revealed that they did not know who they were interacting with.
In addition, among those who play online, two out of ten confirmed having had bad experiences such as offensive comments in text or voice messages. In the same vein, three out of ten identified that those they were playing with were adults, and at least 1,300 of the respondents reported having received requests to send intimate photos.
San Miguel Times
Newsroom