Teenagers ‘influenced by references to alcohol and smoking in games’

Teenagers' perceptions of smoking and alcohol may be influenced by their depiction in popular videogames, according to a new study.

Researchers from the University of Nottingham have conducted the first ever analysis of top-selling video games to find out the extent to which games include this content, as well as to assess the link between playing such games and drinking and smoking behaviour.

The content of 32 bestselling videogames from 2012-2013 was assessed, including Grand Theft Auto V, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Assassin's Creed III. Separately, the views of 1,094 UK adolescents were analysed.

Alcohol and tobacco content was found in 44 percent of these games, while it was also shown that adolescents who had played at least one game with tobacco or alcohol content were twice as likely to have smoked or drunk alcohol themselves.

The researchers expressed concerns that current PEGI content descriptors are failing to restrict youth access to age-inappropriate content.

Dr Joanne Cranwell, a psychologist from the UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, said: "Future research should focus on identifying the levels of exposure in terms of dose that youth gamers are exposed to during actual gameplay and the effects of this on long-term alcohol and smoking behaviour."

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