JIM Study Shows Solid Gaming Use Among German Teenagers
– 2 min read
The results of the new JIM study on the use of AI and how often German young people are confronted with problematic content on the internet are particularly striking. When it comes to gaming, there are hardly any changes.
Since 1998, the Landesanstalt für Kommunikation Baden-Württemberg (LFK; State Media Authority of Baden-Württemberg), the Medienanstalt Rheinland-Pfalz (Media Authority of Rhineland-Palatinate) and the public broadcaster Südwestrundfunk (SWR) have been collecting data on the media use of German young people. And the most important trends are always reflected in the data. This is also the case in the current JIM 2024 study, where JIM stands for Jugendliche in Medien (teenagers in media).
They have noticed an increase in the use of AI applications. For example, 57 percent of young Germans between the ages of 13 and 19 said they use AI applications. Last year, it was only 38 percent. The most common motive was for schoolwork. Another trend is that German young people are increasingly confronted with problematic content. 61 percent said they had received fake news in the last month. In 2021, the figure was only 42 percent. 57 percent (+6 percentage points) of young people have seen offensive comments, and 54 percent (+12 percentage points) have seen extreme political views.
The fact that these experiences mainly take place in social media is particularly tricky: social media is an important source of news for young people and is their constant companion.
In addition to questions about current trends, the 1,200 young people were also asked about their use of traditional and digital media. Compared to the previous year, there has been little change in the area of gaming. Almost three quarters of all young people play daily or several times a week. Mobile games are still very popular. And there is also an unchanged massive gender gap. While male teenagers play almost without exception, about eleven percent of girls do not play games at all.
Other interesting findings from the current JIM study are that Discord has overtaken Pinterest and Facebook in the survey of online services used daily and several times a week, and ranks fifth after WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat. The first four of these are used at least twice as often daily or several times a week by both genders. Discord is used daily or several times a week by 19 percent of girls and 21 percent of young people. Twitch comes x at 13 (girls) and 14 (boys) percent, putting it ahead of X (12 and 13 percent). Teamspeak comes in at 4 and 8 percent, respectively, putting it between Telegram and Threema.
All the results of the JIM study are available to download free of charge (in German) from the study authors' website.
Never miss anything from the German, Swiss and Austrian games industry again: subscribe for free to our Daily newsletter and get all news straight to your inbox.
Written by
