Despite all the criticism, new entertainment fashions, including Internet games, may have more positive than negative impact on young people, according to an official survey of 2,475 students in Beijing.

Conducted by the Beijing Municipal Committee of the Communist Youth League, the survey found that playing games on the Internet only accounted for 20 percent of young people's surfing time.

The survey, which sampled 22 street places, 14 colleges and universities and five high schools, got 2,475 valid feed-back sheets from young people aged between 12 to 24.

It found that new entertainment fashions, such as the Internet and mobile phone games, flash and the so-called DIY (Do It Yourself) games have taken up 50.3 percent of their leisure time, exceeding traditional recreations like TV and sports.

The survey outcome showed that young people enjoy games that relax them and relieve them from daily pressure. Some 90 percent of them said they like the feeling of creativity in playing the new games.

With 57.6 percent of respondents claiming a weekly Internet surfing time below 10 hours, cannot be considered addicted. Most of the surfing time is used for searching and reading news.

Only 19 percent held that they should be shun the new games because of their violence.
 
(Xinhua News Agency September 12, 2005)