Family geographies and parenting practices in relation to loot boxes and gambling-style systems in video games

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Author(s): Mills, Sarah ; Ash, James ; Gordon, Rachel

Journal: Children’s Geographies

Year Published: 2024

Date Added: September 20, 2024

This study explored digital geographies and geographies of home in relation to gaming. The researchers proposed social, seasonal, and limited time as social scientific framings for understanding the impacts of loot boxes and other gambling-style systems in digital games on everyday family life. They drew on data collected for a three year project based in England. The dataset included video recordings of children and youth playing games at home, as well as interviews with parents and game designers. The researchers explored how parents navigated children’s requests for purchases, rules, rewards, and pocket money.

Citation: Mills, S., Ash, J., & Gordon, R. (2024). Digital geographies of home: Parenting practices in the space between gaming and gambling. Children’s Geographies. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2024.2369792

Article DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14733285.2024.2369792

Keywords: family ; family environment ; gambling and gaming ; loot boxes ; parenting ; video games

Topics: Family and Friends

Conceptual Framework Factors: Exposure - Gambling Setting ; Social - Family and Peer Gambling Involvement ; Exposure - Convergence of Gaming and Gambling ; Gambling Exposure

Response Rate: The study took place between 2019 and 2022. The first phase involved video ethnography of gameplay of children and youth in their home. No information was provided on how participants were recruited. For the second phase, parents were recruited the families engaged in the video ethnography sessions. Further recruitment in the Northeast of England was conducted to capture more experiences from fathers via advertisements within employer networks and social media posts. For the third phase, game designers and producers were recruited via direct approaches through game companies, professional network platforms, and snowballing.

Study Design: Ethnographic Study

Geographic Coverage: United Kingdom, England

Study Population: This first phase included data collection through video ethnography with 52 children and youth (46 boys and 6 girls) aged between 5 and 17 from 42 families. Participants were mainly White British families. For the second phase of the research, 20 semi-structured interviews were conducted with parents (15 mothers and 5 fathers). The third and final phase involved 10 semi-structured interviews with game producers and designers based in Europe and North America.

Study Funding:

This study was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.