Tech Shock - from Parent Zone
Tech Shock: everything you ever wanted to know about tech and family life. Podcasting from Parent Zone, the media literacy experts, host Vicki Shotbolt explores the upsides and downsides of family life in the digital age. With a range of expert guests, she looks at online harms to children, from pornography to gambling, and at what should be done about them. Incurably optimistic, Vicki also celebrates the many benefits of tech for children and young people, as she considers how best to live in a world in which family life is now inescapably digital. Listen every Monday, subscribe, and please give us a five star review.
Tech Shock - from Parent Zone
"A range of questionable trends and industry practices” – gaming in 2025
As the Tech Shock podcast returns for its 11th season, Vicki is joined by Sara Grimes, McGill University professor and expert in child rights and ethical game design, to explore the views of young gamers – and the current industry at large.
2025 research from Ofcom shows that 97% of 8-17 year-olds game online. But as the industry continues to grow in popularity – and of course value – we’re left facing the same set of problems (and some newer ones to boot).
Age ratings remain confusing to the parents left to interpret them; in-game advertising is not the elephant in the room, but simply in the room; monetisation and gambling are still one step ahead of regulation; and child creators lack basic rights when it comes to intellectual property.
But to properly understand gaming in 2025 we first need to understand the lived experiences of child gamers themselves – with this also giving us a firm basis to begin asking some important questions, and demanding answers.
Talking points:
- What does direct research with children reveal about gaming and age-appropriate game design?
- Why is it that, within gaming, children aren’t viewed as serious creators with intellectual property rights?
- Is the industry now so problematic that we require a gaming regulator – and what might good regulation in such a complex space actually look like?
Tech Shock is a Parent Zone production. Follow Parent Zone on social media for all the latest on our work on helping families to thrive in the digital age. Presented by Vicki Shotbolt. Tech Shock is produced and edited by Tim Malster.
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