Youth and online gaming

Youth and online gaming in Australia

Young people 8 to 17 years

Online multiplayer gaming is a very popular activity for young Australians.

• 6 in 10 young people have played these games

Anonymity is an important aspect of online gaming.

• 1 in 2 young people have played with people they have not met in person.

Around 34% of young people made an in-game purchase between June 2016 and June 2017.

An estimated 17% of multiplayer gamers experience in-game bullying. Equal to roughly more than 200,000 young Australians.

How young people responded to bullying that they experienced while gaming online:

• 42% turned off chat function
• 41% ignored the bullying
• 38% stopped playing a game with bully/bullies

Young people also used more formal channels to deal with bullying.

Nearly 30% of multiplayer gamers who experienced bullying reported it to game moderators.

1 in 5 young people who were bullied while playing also retaliated.

• 25% teens (in this case, 14 to 17 years old), 19% kids 
• 24% boys, 16% girls

Source: State of play — youth and online gaming in Australia, Office of the eSafety Commissioner, March 2018. Data drawn from eSafety’s Youth Digital Participation Survey, based on a random sample of 3,017 young people in Australia aged 8 to 17 years in the 12 months to June 2017.

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