The Swedish Media Council

1. Presentation Luxembourg:
"Online games – what role do they play in the lives of children?"
The Swedish Media Council is a committee of inquiry in the Swedish government offices,
working with children’s and young people’s media situation, with an aim to reduce the risks of
harmful effects of the media and to empower the children in their media use. The Council
covers all moving image media, i.e. the Internet, film, television, computer and video games.
photo © Linkimage

2. Statistics from Kids & Media 2010
2-9 year olds play easy on- & offline games on the computer. The most common game site is bolibompa.se
5-12 year olds play the most (both casual games and online games).
From the age of 9 they play both easy/casual
games on the Internet as well as online games.
Children 9-12 years old play a variety of
free Internet games, Super Mario, Sims,
Sims 2, FIFA 10.
From the age of 12 they only play online games. The most
popular are Counter Strike, WoW, Call of Duty - Modern
Warfare.
images © Linkimage and Swedish Media Council

3. The World as a Playground –
crossing borders in the culture of
online games
by Jonas Linderoth and Camilla Olsson (the
University of Gothenburg)
A report about the culture of online games and the
cross-boundary community associated with the
activity.
cover image © Daniel Eyre

4. Online games = performance culture:
age differences, nationality and social class
are not as important as they are in other
social arenas.
Female players are treated differently and
subjected to sexualisation in the world of online
games. Many have developed counter strategies,
for example women pretend to be men, vice versa
or players keep their gender secret.
The performance culture does not apply to one area:
if the player is a woman, certain stereotypical gender
perceptions emerge.
photo © Linkimage
photo © Linkimage