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Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony have announced a set of guidelines for the online gaming community, aimed at protecting players’ safety.
“Protecting players can be challenging in a digitally and often instantaneously connected world,” Dave McCarthy, VP at Xbox said in a blog post.
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The companies have come up with a multidisciplinary approach “that combines the benefits of advanced technology, a supportive community, and skilled human oversight,” according to a blog post.
The guidelines are categorised under three heads: prevention, partnership, and responsibility.
Under prevention, they plan to empower players and parents to understand and control gaming experiences, as well as promote the availability of their safety tools to reach more players and parents.
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The companies will also work with industry members and trade organisations, regulators, law enforcement, and experts to develop and advance online safety initiatives.
Further, they will make it easy for players to report violations, restrict players from using their services for misconduct, notify law enforcement where they believe a player is at risk of imminent harm, a blog post noted.
The three companies have their individual gaming policies to moderate their platforms, including gaming consoles. In the past, this has also resulted in issues related to games that support cross-platform playing, as individual platforms are moderated by different rules. This announcement does not mention any alterations to the existing policies.
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Although, McCarthy stated, “this partnership signifies our commitment to work together to improve player safety and ensure gaming remains truly for everyone.”
