PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y. -- Boys ages 5 to 12 are spending more time playing video games than with each of the traditional toy categories in an average week, while girls in the same age group tend to spend more or comparable time with several toy categories as they do video games, according to a recent report from the NPD Group here, "Toying with Video Games: An In-depth Report on the Impact of Video Games on Traditional Toys." The report said the average time children ages 5 to 12 spend playing video games is 4.2 hours per week, with 32% of boys and only 10% of girls playing more than six hours per week. Nearly half of the children in the study began playing video games between the ages of 4 and 5, with 20% beginning at age 3 or younger.
