Playing video games as a family: this Christmas the game is shared

Playing video games is a common activity in Catalan homes, especially during the Christmas holidays. For this reason, the Government of Catalonia has published "Shared Game: A Guide to Enjoying Video Games as a Family," a tool designed to help families transform digital gaming into a healthy, mindful, and shared experience. The guide offers practical advice and simple resources to help families support children and young people before, during, and after playing. It is an initiative of the Catalan Video Game Roundtable—a forum for industry stakeholders and the Government of Catalonia—promoted by the Department of Culture and developed jointly with the Departments of Education and Vocational Training and of Health, and with Good Game Generation, an organization specializing in promoting the educational and transformative use of video games.

The Guide: Five Steps for Accompaniment

Shared Gaming: A Guide to Enjoying Video Games as a FamilyIt is structured in three key moments (before, during and after the game) and is developed through five steps that facilitate understanding and managing the gaming experience:

Before playing

• Step 1. Understanding the starting point: identifying what motivates each child or young person, how they use digital games, and what stage of life they are in. This step helps to contextualize the experience and detect specific needs.

• Step 2. Game selection and validation: practical criteria for choosing appropriate video games based on age, interests, and maturity, taking into account tools such as PEGI ratings, game dynamics, and the type of interaction they promote.

• Step 3. Establishing rules and boundaries: proposals for agreeing on routines, playtime, usage spaces, and basic rules of digital coexistence, avoiding conflicts and setting clear expectations from the beginning.

During play

• Step 4. Supervise, enforce rules, and play together: recommendations for adults, children, and young people to share criteria, maintain active monitoring, and promote family play as an opportunity to talk, observe, and reinforce healthy habits.

After playing

• Step 5. Encouraging open dialogue, review, and continuous improvement: tools for discussing the play experience, managing potential conflicts, reviewing established rules, and flexibly adapting them as children and young people grow and their needs change.

The guide provides practical guidance and recommendations adaptable to family situations, with practical exercises, guiding questions, and simple activities to apply to each step. The objective of the guide Of course: to make video games an educational and social opportunity, avoiding risks and harnessing their creative potential. The publication is available in digital format and will also reach schools, libraries, and cultural centers in Catalonia throughout 2026.

According to recent data from the Video Game Roundtable, 73% of Catalan minors play video games and dedicate almost seven hours a week to them. Although 84% of parents know which games their children play, only 43% have sought information or advice on the subject. With this guide, the Catalan Government wants to provide tools to strengthen the active role of families in digital education.

This Christmas, when video games will be a central part of many homes, the proposal is clear: sharing the game is the best way to learn to play well, promoting conscious and healthy use.