Childline: Gaming companies need to put children's safety at the heart of platform design
Online gaming, like many elements of the internet age, can be fantastic, allowing children to make new friends or play games with family members thousands of miles away.
But it also presents risks.
New research from the online safety watchdog Ofcom found that more than half of children who game online (55%), said they played at least sometimes with people they have never met in real life, while one in five (20%), do so all or most of the time they play.
Online games today are a world away from the types of games parents might be used to, and certainly a huge technical leap forward from the sort of games children were playing when Childline was launched 40 years ago.
But the subjects of abuse, bullying and grooming are just as relevant now as they ever were, and as playing and communicating with strangers becoming a common part of the online gaming experience for many children, now is the perfect time to have open and honest conversations about online safety with your child.
There are pages of resources available on the NSPCC and Childline websites to offer advice on using the internet safely and online gaming, as well as tips on how to ensure the security settings on your child’s games or apps are activated in a way which can keep them safer.
Perhaps the most important thing a parent or carer can do is to show curiosity about the games or apps they use – how they work, who they play with, and what they would do if they ever encountered anything or anyone in the game which made them feel uncomfortable.
Explore games and apps together and learn how they can block or report anyone who upsets them.
By having these conversations before there’s a problem, you’ll help them feel comfortable coming to you when something happens that they don’t like.
However, the onus of online safety should not fall solely on the families at risk.
Gaming companies need to put children's safety at the heart of platform design, while Ofcom and the Government must also be using their powers to enforce stronger safeguards around features and functionalities that increase risks to children.