I think 2.8% is a little under the number of fifth graders would would automatically answer yes to any question involving the word sex, regardless of truth. Japanese kids are so serious!

What games do little Japanese kids play? Well, according to the National Congress of Parents and Teachers Associations of Japan (PTA), 2.8 percent of the 5th graders said they often play games with explicit sexual content, while 97.5 percent, well, don't.

Hmm, 2.8 + 97.5 = 100.3... it appears the PTA doesn't specialize in math.

But as for the actual findings, that's rather creepy.

2.8 do
97.5 don't

100.3 percent?

Anyway, yeah, I know stats are screwy. But it sounds like 2.8% are getting a great education. Well,... I would've liked some eroge at that age.
Of course, I'm sure a lot of people might say that it teaches these kids to objectify women at a very young age.

By the time I post this, I bet like 20 posters will have commented about the % thing but when I hit "more" there were no posts. Blah.

What was the old record?

I'm guessing those 4.8 percent without a home console just forgot or misunderstood the question.

Japanese people operate at 100.3%.

Korean kids prefer starcraft, like in the picture.

Alright, only beaten by 1!
I'm curious as to how these kids obtained the software. Well,... not really. When I went on a trip to Japan with my school band I accidentatly walked up to the porn floor of some shop and no one noticed nor cared. The clerk was just readin the newspaper. I had no clue what I got into until I reached the BACK of the room and took a good look around. Whoops.

That's a bit fascinating if not creepy. Though with kids nowadays it's perfectly normal. Hell I'm pretty sure any erotic game they play is tamer compared to what they can see on the 'net...

its probably 2.8% of 5th graders admit to playing erotic games.

100.3% ...great. Now they have a .3% on us too?

=/ I know little kids (4th Gradish? Whatever grade you're in when you're 10) around here that played games with nudity, but not necessarily eroticism. But Japan does have more erotic games than the US, maybe that's why.

Gotta get 'em hooked while they're young, right? It works for cigareettes, too.

@BPMζ:
And I know I misspelled cigarettes... ·_·;

If you have the internet, you look at porn.

interesting article

I was told that in Japan only a small percentage of the gaming public has high speed internet (T1, DSL, Cable) on their home computer. In fact I was given the impression by one person who claimed to have visited Japan that most people there access the internet through their phone.

Is this true and could this account for the low popularity of Online games? Can any Japanese people shed some light?

"2.8 percent of the 5th graders said they often play games with explicit sexual content"

Key word is "often." Does this mean that the other 97.2% play games with explicit sexual content but less frequently? Not at all? Also what does often mean? One a day? Once a week?

I can't really make any judgment based on this poll.

Korean 5th graders PREFER Starcraft like in the picture.

When I was about 10, I would play Leisure Suit Larry...I guess that kind of counts.

oh please...

as if yall didn't sneak a peak at your dad's Playboy collection or went to look for free porn on internet...

those figures seem pretty low...only 2.8?

probsbly more like 28%...they just don't want other to know they have eroge hidden in C:\Windows\system directory...

@silkylove: Yeah, this is a poorly constructed study based on unclear wording. Too many confounders.

Seems tame compared to what I was doing in 5th grade...

@pine22: That's the first thing that came to my mind.

Seems to me there was a recent Penny Arcade comic about something similar.

I was born too soon! To think... all we had was a tattered copy of someone dad's stolen copy of "Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition" passed around the neighborhood.

The only thing I'm seeing that's surprising here is that the number is so low. I can only guess some of the kids didn't want to say they played those games (or don't play them "often"). Kids will be kids. Nothing especially sinister about some healthy curiosity.

Update on the story: 2.5% of Children not Erogamers, but 13% don't deny?
[www.sankakucomplex.com]

I wonder if anyone has photoshoped the pic yet based upon the story.

You should note that adult entertainment is advertised PUBLICLY in Japan, that is, ON THE STREET.

And you expect children to not know of there existence?

Looks like that kid is playing Starcraft. Never knew Starcraft was erotic.. Well, maybe to some... :/

For those not in the United States (Who'd have thought the internet is global and every country doesn't use a US standard!) what ages are talking here?

Hm. Wow. Well, I find it more shocking that the most popular children's anime show is Kanokon.
In case you're wondering what's so bad about that, the main character nearly has sex, on screen, in the first episode.

No wonder. Jap's have sooooo many 'sex games' available. I swear that if America had that many sex games, I'd be jerking off in from of my computer screen at age 10 too! Right after watching Barney of course.

Sniff... I always wanted the next generation to have it so much better than I did...

[img182.imageshack.us]

By exposing kids to that kind of material at only 10 years old its no surprise that there is loads erotic art produced for adults in Japan which we, in the West would describe as 'pedophile material' Schoolgirls and the like !!.

@AssassinTRIP: You may want to duck. The word "jap" isn't taken too kindly, especially on Kotaku.

starcraft

@ubernoob: That would be shocking. If Kanokon were a children's show.

5th grade in Japan is 11-12 years old.

Well, what kind of 'explicit sexual content' are we talking about? Grand Theft Auto 4 type, or just plain H games?

Either way, I don't see how this is a huge deal. It's not like most kids haven't discovered some form of pornography by then.

I played Leisure Suit Larry way before grade 5.

2.8% is so small to be a random effect. My guess is you'd get 5% saying Dinosaurs still walk the earth.

@Channing:
That happened to me too Channing. I was checking a shop at Akihabara street and I suddenly wondered what was at the basement. I was surprised to what I found. Everything was so normal down there. Businessmen walking around as they would walk around any shop. Also a manga shop next door was full of gay mangas and sex mangas. Erotica is hot in Japan. lol.

@Hypnotoad222

Any commenters after this, read the link Hypnotoad gave (which had a confusing title but is important) - the 2.8% figure is actually for adult-rated games such as Grand Theft Auto, not H games.

There is a specific H game category which - I'm squinting at the graph now - seems to show that:

0% frequently play
0.1% play sometimes
0.6% (have played once? can't read this)
86.9% have never played
12.4% didn't answer

(Added bonus: these numbers add up to 100%.)

To put it another way, of those who answered, more than 99% have never played an H game even once, while the number who play H games sometimes (more than the option I couldn't read that probably means they played one once) is 0.1%.

0.1%.

SHOCK HORROR.

Incidentally, +1 on the 'how old is 10th grade' question. Is that in high school? If so I'm pretty shocked by the figures, in the other direction, definitely have some suspicions about the 12.4% who wouldn't admit it^W^W answer...

Anyone remember that one kid that would always show up to school with a backpack chock full of porn? I know there had to be one at every school !!!

Man, when I was in 5th grade all we played was "Oregon Trail" and "Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?". I wish they still made those games because they were awesome.

@Phlycheez: We need Oregon Trail on XBLA/PSN with online support!

I'd buy that for a dollar!

I used to play Atari´s X-Man, a game filled with squares doing sex positions, when I was 6 and I found it really funny. It didn´t make me a pedophile or something, it was ridiculous, funny shit, and I didn´t even understand it right. I just knew it was wrong... :D lol

when i was in the 5th grade i had 2 things worry about.

1) Buying Genesis games
2) buying Snes Games

damn its scary how damaged some of this youth is today.

Meh, Japanese kids are introduced into knowing what sex is at a young age. This isn't anything new to me.

I doubt they play it for excitement in a sexual way.

Meh, in 6th and 7th grade I was the dealer of hard-core porno magazines and tapes to several classes in my school - it was simply business :)

OH MY GOD... WHAT?!

...you mean they didn't know that already? :p

@excaliburps:
No, just as bad really.

Do these kids know what "explicit sexual content" means? They could think that kissing is explicit sexual content, you know?

And people, "Jap" is NOT ACCEPTABLE. Say this to any person of Japanese ancestry, and you will get a punch in the face. It's "Japanese," or if you're short of time "Jpn." (heavy sigh)

@ubernoob: I don't think Kanokon is especially shocking, and I have seen the episode you refer to. There are numerous countries that introduce kids to adult concepts earlier than is common in countries founded on puritan values like the US.

There's reasonable justification for that school of thought too. Children are always intrigued by what's forbidden and parents that think their children are not curious about such things I'd say are sorely mistaken. Is it more desirable that something like sex is seen as a normal and healthy part of life, or as something taboo and frowned upon? Which of these two schools of thought are more likely to cause social problems? I personally don't think the causes and effects of such ideas are given enough thought in western society.