The games industry must remain vigilant on safeguarding children | Opinion
Hendrik Lesser and Dr Olaf Coenen
Tuesday 8th February 2022
We can be rightly proud of our long, established history of safeguarding children in our games and on our platforms through ensuring our games are brilliant fun whilst investing in the tools, the technology and the teams to make playing video games a positive experience for all, especially our youngest players. But we know we can never be complacent. We must remain vigilant, constantly evolve our safeguards and work to educate parents and guardians about the options available to them.
In Brussels, there is more and more focus on making the online world a safe place to be. The spotlight is, rightly, on keeping children safe in the digital age, particularly in places like social media where harms are being seen most often. Lawmakers are looking at rules for platforms that host illegal content; privacy and data protection; a declaration on the rights of the child in the digital environment; and, later this year, we await the publication of a new Better Internet for Children strategy.
Hendrik Lesser, EGDF
Whilst the majority of video game players are adults, many European children are playing our games and we have a responsibility to go above and beyond what is expected -- and we do. Educating not only our players, parents and teachers, but also everyone who works in the industry, is key to optimising the efficacy of the available tools and safeguards.
Europe's video game sector is, in fact, at the forefront when it comes to safety-by-design: we have had parental control tools since 2003 . This is almost 20 years of experience and ever-evolving improvements to controls that are integrated in both our software and hardware.
As an industry, we should be proud of our
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