Between fun and danger: perception of risk in digital leisure among adolescents

Digital entertainment has become very important in the lives of adolescents, generating new opportunities but also exposing them to potential risks. This study aims to analyse the perception of risk in adolescent digital leisure activities, identifying the main empirical dimensions structuring this perception and evaluating its impact especially in the digital gaming sector. Cross-sectional quantitative research has been carried out through an online survey of a sample of 300 adolescents between 12 and 17 years of age in Spain in 2023. To analyse the data, an exploratory principal component analysis (PCA) is applied. The results show that the perception of risk is organized in three main dimensions: (1) activities with a low perception of danger, such as video games, eSports and loot boxes; (2) activities with moderate or high risk perception, such as online gambling, sports betting and tipster monitoring; and (3) sociodemographic variables.