Gaming giants Nintendo, PlayStation and Xbox have all shared details about their similarity in making gaming a safer place for players.
Dave McCarthy, Corporate Vice President, Xbox Operations, shared a new post today on the official Xbox website, highlighting the basic principles that sit at the heart of every company’s mission. “We believe in gaming for all ages, including our youngest and most vulnerable players,” the post says. “Technology makes compulsory entertainment experiences possible, and we want to ensure that those experiences – especially when they interact with others – are positive and respectful.”
In this news, McCarthy explains how Xbox is ‘aligned’ with its industry competitors and shares three key pillars that hold its functions.
“At Xbox, we’re partnered with Nintendo on behalf of the Nintendo Switch Players and PlayStation Community. We will invest, evolve and multiply in our approaches. As we continue this work, we will prioritize the safety of our players, especially the most vulnerable. “
Here are the key principles listed in the post:
Prevention: Empower players and parents to understand and control gaming experiences.
- We offer controls that allow players to customize their gaming experience. We support the tools and information parents need to create appropriate gaming experiences for their children.
- We know that security features must be easy to use in order to be effective. We will promote the availability of our security tools on our sites, support channels, services, our websites and retail stores to reach our players and parents.
- We constantly inform our parents and players through our Code of Conduct, Terms of Use and our enforcement practices.
- We invest in technology to prevent improper behavior and content before a player is harmed.
Partnership: We are committed to collaborating with industry, regulators, law enforcement and our communities to improve user safety.
- The industry’s commitment to security is central. We believe that for the benefit of the video game industry, we have an opportunity to collaborate to provide a safe gaming experience for all players.
- We work with businesses, industry members, regulators, law enforcement and experts to promote and enhance online security initiatives.
- We are committed to conducting shared research for the benefit of the industry.
- We believe that hatred and harassment or exploitation of younger players has no place in gaming. We partner with our community to promote safe gaming behavior and to encourage the use of reporting tools to invite bad actors.
- We partner with rating agencies such as ESRB and PEGI to ensure that our games are rated for the appropriate audience.
Responsibility: We are responsible for keeping our sites as secure as possible for all players.
- We make it easy for players to report violations of our Code of Conduct, and we take appropriate enforcement action for violations, including removing content and preventing our services from being misused.
- We comply with all local laws and respond to all law enforcement requests. We will notify law enforcement immediately if we notice illegal behavior or if we believe a player is at risk of immediate harm.
- We publish our terms and requirements and ensure that reported players understand the requirements for continued engagement with our sites.
It’s great to see companies ‘holding themselves accountable’ for keeping their sites as safe as possible here. Incidentally, if you need any help, you can find Nintendo’s support page and parenting information at those links.
McCarthy concludes:
“Protecting players in a digital and often instantly connected world is a challenge. This partnership signifies our commitment to working together to improve the safety of players and ensure that gaming is true to all. The video game industry has a long history of taking action to protect players, especially children, any industry or industry.” We recognize that alone will not solve.
“We welcome others to make and share similar commitments to players everywhere.”
Do you believe that Nintendo, PlayStation and Xbox will be enough to protect gamers? Do you think more can be done, or do you think all three companies should accept a higher level of responsibility than they do now? You can share your thoughts on the topic in the comments section below.