Collaboration for Player Safety
Nintendo, Sony Interactive Entertainment, and Microsoft are working together to “enhance player safety across their platforms,” including Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox consoles. Their joint effort began back in 2020 when the companies publicly declared their commitment to safeguard players. Since then, they have been “collaborating behind the scenes” to promote safer and more positive online gaming environments, especially for younger audiences.
Multidisciplinary Approach
In a recent Xbox Wire update, Xbox elaborated on its commitment to player safety through a multidisciplinary approach. This strategy incorporates cutting-edge technology, research-driven insights, community support, and skilled human oversight. The three main principles outlined in 2020 are prevention, partnership, and responsibility.
Prevention: Empowering Players and Parents
- We offer tools that enable players to customize their gaming experiences. Parents are equipped with the necessary resources to ensure suitable gaming environments for their children.
- We understand that safety features need to be user-friendly to be effective. Therefore, we promote easy access to our safety tools through various channels to help reach players and parents effectively.
- We inform players and parents about our conduct codes and terms of use, enforcing these policies with various preventive and corrective measures. Our design philosophy emphasizes transparency and player empowerment, ensuring experiences are intuitive and respectful of user choices.
Partnership: Building Strong Relationships
- We believe that our commitment to safety enhances the gaming industry and benefits all players by creating secure gaming experiences.
- We collaborate with global and regional industry trade organizations, regulators, law enforcement, and non-profits to advance online safety initiatives, including groups like the Thriving in Games Group and the Family Online Safety Institute.
- Our joint research helps inform policy decisions and drive innovation in the industry, while also engaging with external research centers focused on play and wellbeing.
- We actively encourage safe gaming behavior in our community and provide reporting tools to address negative behavior quickly.
- We work with rating agencies like ESRB and PEGI to ensure our games are appropriately rated and collaborate with industry associations to promote trust and safety information.
- We invest in advanced technology and partnerships to prevent misconduct and participate in initiatives focused on enhancing child safety.
Responsibility: Ensuring Accountability
- We simplify the process for players to report violations of our community guidelines and continuously improve these guidelines to support our communities.
- Besides removing inappropriate content, we take necessary enforcement actions against violations, including restrictions for misconduct, with escalating measures for serious or repeated offenses.
- We adhere to all relevant laws and respond to law enforcement requests, notifying them promptly of any unlawful conduct or imminent risks to players.
- We publish clear rules and requirements, ensuring that players who face reports understand the expectations for continuing their engagement on our platforms.
This collaboration underscores our commitment to finding solutions that improve player safety and create an inclusive gaming environment,” Xbox stated on behalf of the three companies.
The gaming industry has a longstanding tradition of prioritizing player safety, particularly for children. However, these challenges require a united effort and shared values, and we invite others to join us in promoting the safety and well-being of players worldwide.
