Credit: University of Bristol
Young girls reported heightened body dissatisfaction after playing a children's internet game for just 10 minutes, a 🧾 study has found.
Primary school children expressed a more pronounced desire for a slimmer figure immediately after playing a free game 🧾 which challenges players to give a female character a makeover for a date.
For the study conducted by the University of 🧾 the West of England (UWE Bristol) youngsters played Dream Date Dress Up, one of several appearance-focussed games targeted at girls 🧾 hosted on the Friv website.
A group of 40 eight and nine-year-olds from the South West of England played the makeover 🧾 game, which sees players changing the hair and clothing of a female character to match a boy character's ideal. Another 🧾 40 played Penguin Diner, a game from the same website which is not based on appearance.
Participants were then instructed to 🧾 select the silhouette of a body shape which most closely represented their own, and the one most desirable to them. 🧾 Both groups recorded a preference for a slimmer figure but children who had played Dream Date
Dress Up registered a 'significantly' 🧾 greater preference for a thinner body than those who had played Penguin Diner.
The research will be unveiled at Appearance Matters, 🧾 the world's largest conference on body image and disfigurement. Staged in central London between June 28-30, the event will see 🧾 more than 200 appearance experts from across the globe tackle issues including weight loss surgery, low cut clothing and 'ultra-thin' 🧾 dolls.
Amy Slater, a Senior Research Fellow at the world-renowned Centre for Appearance Research (CAR), based at UWE Bristol, will tell 🧾 the conference she undertook the experimental research on internet games to gauge their impact on children's body satisfaction and career 🧾 aspirations. She said the findings were cause for concern.
Credit: University of Bristol
Dr Slater, who worked on the study with colleagues 🧾 Emma Halliwell and Hannah Jarman, said: "This is concerning because we know that girls who have body dissatisfaction at a 🧾 young age are more likely to experience ongoing concerns when they grow up. Body dissatisfaction is known to be a 🧾 risk factor for lowered self-esteem, disordered eating and depression.
"A game like that is sending a fairly blatant message for young 🧾 girls that they need to change their appearance in order to be appealing to a boy and that you need 🧾 to focus on your appearance to be attractive to the opposite sex.
"Young girls of six, seven, eight, nine and 10 🧾 are the target audience for this game. Do they need to even be thinking about how they would prepare to 🧾 go on a date, and how they can make themselves look cute? This is not a helpful message for young 🧾 girls to be focusing on.
"Even if they have not played this type of game, many young girls may be exposed 🧾 to similar messages through magazines, advertising, clothing and toys."
In 2014, Ofcom highlighted that children were increasingly being attracted to multi-game 🧾 websites such as Friv which contain a large number of mini games. Other appearance-related games on the site include Fashion 🧾 Week Dress Up, Pin-up Facial Beauty and Selena's Date Rush.
Dr Slater chose to study the impact of internet games because 🧾 their effect on young players had not been widely researched. It follows widespread public and political concern about girls 'growing 🧾 up too quickly'.
She said: "It's useful for parents to be aware of the types of messages children are being exposed 🧾 to. Lots of parents may not realise these messages are prevalent in game websites like this. It would also be 🧾 useful to see more societal level changes, with improved regulation, and ideally game makers creating games which are appealing to 🧾 young girls without containing these types of messages. We would welcome a discussion with the creators of these games.
"The study 🧾 provides preliminary evidence that internet games with an appearance or sexualised focus may be detrimental to young girls' body image. 🧾 Internet games should be included in our consideration of influential sources of appearance based message for young girls."
