PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo are teaming up in an effort to make games safer for all players.
In a blog post, Dave McCarthy, corporate vice president of Xbox Operations, said the company is aligned with its fellow console manufacturers on principles to guide their work in making gaming experiences “positive and respectful.”
To do that, McCarthy wrote, all three companies will adopt “a multidisciplinary approach — one that combines the benefits of advanced technology, a supportive community, and skilled human oversight.”
According to McCarthy, the companies will follow these three principles:
Prevention: Empower players and parents to understand and control gaming experiences
- Providing parental controls to let parents manage how their children play
- Promote safety tools across channels, services, websites and retail stores
- Inform parents and players of codes of conduct, terms of use and enforcement practices
- Invest in technology to help stop improper conduct and content
Partnership: Commit to partnering with the industry, regulators, law enforcement, and our communities to advance user safety
- Collaborate with each other and industry trade organizations, industry members, regulators, law enforcement, and experts to develop and advance online safety initiatives
- Share research for the benefit of the industry
- Work with the community to promote safe behaviour while encouraging reporting tools to call out bad actors
- Partner with ratings agencies like the ESRB (North America) and PEGI (Europe) to ensure games are rated for the appropriate audience
Responsibility: Holding themselves accountable for making their platforms as safe as possible for all players
- Make it easy to players to report violations of conduct while removing content and taking appropriate action for violations
- Comply with all local laws and work with law enforcement when lawful conduct is observed or a player is believed to be at risk of imminent harm
- Publish rules and requirements so players can be aware of what they must do to keep playing on these platforms
“This partnership signifies our commitment to work together to improve player safety and ensure gaming remains truly for everyone. While the video game industry has a long history of taking steps to protect gamers, especially children, we recognize that no one company or industry will solve these challenges alone,” concluded McCarthy.
Source: Xbox
