Despite of what was known and believed, computer games appear to have a positive social impact on teens, potentially raising awareness of social issues and consolidating friendship.

The study was funded by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. They found that it’s all about the quality time young people spend together while gaming and not the actual time they spend doing that.

The study’s co-author, Joe Kahne, a professor at Mills College in Oakland, California, explained that a lot of the of the 1,102 teenagers interrogated said they had encountered hostility, racism and sexism while playing online. “Just as some playground experiences are enriching and some are unpleasant for young people, one can imagine that that would be true in the game world,” Kahne said.

The poll proved that 99 percent of teenage boys and 94 percent of teenage girls play video games regularly. However kids who play video games more often than the average are not less socially active or less expected to take part in social activities. Almost one-third of teens play games every day, and an additional 21 percent play games three to five days a week. It’s the parents who didn’t benefit from this kind of entertainment while they were kids themselves that made up this concern related to computer games.

Games such as “Grand Theft Auto” are out and replaced by games that encourage mentorship and teamwork between players, have players learn about a social issue like famine or the environment, or force them to make moral and ethical decisions as well as to make decisions and facing their consequences.