“To Prohibit or Permit”: Strategies of Parental Behaviour in Relation to Children’s Video Games in Today’s Russia

¹ St Petersburg University, Faculty of Sociology, 1/3, entrance 9, Ul. Smolnogo, St. Petersburg, Russia
² SI RAS – FCTAS RAS, 190005, 7-ya Krasnoarmeyskaya str. 25/14, St. Petersburg, Russia

^* Corresponding author: e.orekh@spbu.ru

Abstract

The article analyses the results of the exploratory empirical research of children’s video game practice. Based on the analysis of semi-structured interviews, as well as observation diaries on the theme of children’s game socialization, particularly the interaction of children, their peers, parents concerning video games, some conclusions about parenting strategies practiced in contemporary St. Petersburg’s families are made. It was found that the rapid expansion of computer games produces the parent’s fears associated with a lack of understanding of the consequences of the video games impact on children. One of the main results is the conclusion that the parental legitimation of practices is in many ways inherited from and reproduces the Soviet attitudes towards parenting and children. Some statements, such as the 15-minute rule (allowing the use of computer per set), view of a computer as a cause of aggression and alienation, are axiomatized. However, it goes hand in hand with a (neo)liberal rhetoric in relation to the use of a computer.