P127. Understanding Digital Gaming Harm: What Constitutes Digital Gaming Harm According to UK Gamers?

• In Event: Poster Session & Ice Cream Social

Abstract

The digital gaming community is constantly growing in the UK, with individuals accessing digital gaming at younger ages than ever before. With growth, however, comes scope for harm in these spaces. Despite the opportunity for harm and frequent reporting by both media and the academic literature of harm occurring in digital gaming spheres, academia lacks an agreed definition of what constitutes digital gaming harm. A literature review reveals that definitions are top-down and academically defined, self-imposed based on academic examples of behaviours that constitute digital gaming harm, or entirely absent from papers altogether. The issues with defining harm further expand to a matter of inclusivity. Notably, adolescents are frequently excluded from research on digital gaming harm despite being a large portion of the UK gaming demographic. Subsequently, the top-down academic formulations of digital gaming harm could be said to be derived from an adult-centric perspective. This research aims to develop a UK-specific, bottom-up, inclusive definition of digital gaming harm.

We plan to conduct a UK nationwide ecological momentary assessment (EMA) with adolescent and adult gamers, followed by focus groups for validation and triangulation purposes. Participants will complete daily surveys via the SEMA3 App, an open-source App developed for EMAs, over two weeks, responding to questions about their experiences of digital gaming harm for that day. Follow-up focus groups with adolescents and adults will explore their views on the EMA results and further develop knowledge about what constitutes digital gaming harm to the user.

Ultimately, by identifying behaviours which constitute digital gaming harm according to the UK gaming population, this research aims to begin a framework of digital gaming harm behaviours for future academic inquiry that reflects user opinions.

Authors

• Catherine Louise Bostock, University of Bath

• Katie Maras, University of Bath

• David Ellis, University of Bath