Comparison of Korean and Chinese Adolescents’ Online Games Use Including Mobile Games

Abstract

Despite the rapidly growing mobile game market in Korea and China, few studies investigated and compared game use patterns between countries. Thus, this study explored the diverse aspects of online gaming (PC gaming and mobile gaming) use by adolescents in both countries in terms of their time spent using online games, preference of game genre, parental mediation strategies and the game effects. Consequently, they showed similar patterns but game addiction was serious among Chinese students. The average hours per day spent on mobile games were about 1 h (61.49 min) for Korean students and about one and a half hours (85.72 min) for Chinese students. Compared with PC online games, students in both countries enjoyed mobile games more often after midnight. The frequency of cyberbullying experiences was similar among respondents from both countries. Korean and Chinese students liked almost the same game genres. They liked RPGs and sports/racing games most.