Microsoft, Nintendo, and PlayStation released a joint statement on Monday pledging to make gaming safer for everyone across all their platforms.
Dave McCarthy, corporate vice president of Xbox operations, posted the joint statement on Microsoft’s Xbox Wire, titled “Our Shared Commitment to Safer Gaming,” outlining each company’s initiative to protect gamers of all ages, especially children who are the “youngest and most vulnerable players.”
Each gaming company presented three principles critical to their commitment to ensuring gamer safety: prevention, partnership, and responsibility.
Prevention includes pledges to give players and parents safety tools and features needed to customize the gaming experiences appropriate for the players’ age and educating on the codes of conduct, terms of use, enforcement policies, and investment in tech to prevent harm to players before it happens.
Partnership involves engaging with players, law enforcement agencies, industry regulators, and gaming communities to advance gamer safety, including encouraging the use of reporting tools to call out hate and harassment.
Finally, responsibility involves each company holding themselves accountable for complying with law enforcement and notifying authorities in the event unlawful conduct occurs or a player is at risk of harm, making sure that everyone knows what their codes of conduct are, and that players who have been reported for ill-conduct know what rules to follow in order to continue playing on their platforms.
McCarthy added that protecting players, most importantly children, can be extremely challenging in a digital era where everyone is simultaneously connected with each other, which is what made the partnership between Microsoft, Nintendo, and PlayStation possible.
“Protecting players can be challenging in a digitally and often instantaneously connected world. 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.”
You can read the full statement here.
