17 per cent of 5-8 year olds gaming every day
And 81 per cent have played in the past, says new US study
A new study by Common Sense Media shows that 17 per cent of children aged between 5 and 8 years old play games everyday, while 81 per cent have played games during their lifetime.
For the wider age range of birth to eight year olds, that figure dropped to around half, at 51 per cent.
74 percent of children's screen time is still television based, compared to 10 percent with video games and 13 percent at a home computer.
The study, which surveyed 1,384 parents in the US, also saw a difference in the habits of boys and girls.
"Boys are more likely to have ever played a console video game than girls are (56% vs. 46%), to have a video game player in their bedroom (14% vs. 7%), and to play console video games every day (14% vs. 5%)"
67 per cent of those children in the survey had a console at home, with 24 per cent having their own gaming handheld, and 29 per cent have some sort of educational gaming device.
The survey was conducted by Knowledge Networks for Common Sense Media, and too place between May 27 and June 15 this year. The questions were offered in both English and Spanish, and the full study is available here.