Tech companies must realise that with power comes responsibility

We spend a lot of time talking about social media, but many children spend just as much time – if not more – on online gaming platforms. We wanted to find out from kids themselves what the benefits and risks of gaming are.

What we’ve found is that although gaming is seen as a positive thing by children because they enjoy playing with friends, developing new skills and find it helps them to unwind, it can also bring harms which should not be ignored. Children describe a Wild West online gaming world in which they can be targeted, exploited and bullied.

They told us they are afraid of becoming addicted and – most worryingly – are sometimes drawn into activities that spiral out of control and cost a lot of money. To some it feels like gambling.

I was struck by one 16-year-old boy who told us that he had spent £300 this year so far, trying to win the best players on FIFA 19 by opening in-game Player Packs with no promise of

‘Children describe a Wild West online gaming world in which they can be targeted, exploited and bullied’

reward. Another boy described the feeling of wanting to open more after losing out – he was chasing his losses.

The question for the Government remains how their duty of care proposals will factor in age verification. If children are going to be protected online, platforms need to be able to know who they are. Yet we know that at the moment they do not – children simply falsify their date of birth in order to gain access to a whole range of sites and content which is not designed for them to see.

Critics argue that age verification represents a threat to people’s privacy, but dropping the porn block does not solve the problem, only delays it. It is, of course, vital that any approach to protecting children online is coherent. A streamlined legislative and regulatory framework may be easier for everyone to understand, and ultimately produce better results for children.

But it puts a lot of pressure on the Government to get that duty of care framework right – and fast.

The tech and gaming companies may not want their powers curtailed, but with power there must also come responsibility.