Child Safety and Protection in the Online Gaming Ecosystem

Abstract

Online gaming no longer has limited access, as it has become available to a high percentage of children in recent years. Consequently, children are exposed to multifaceted threats, such as cyberbullying, grooming, and sexting. Although the online gaming industry is taking concerted measures to create a safe environment for children to play and interact with, such efforts remain inadequate and fragmented. There is a vital need to develop laws and policies to regulate and build minimum standards for the industry to safeguard and protect children online on the one hand, while promoting innovations in the gaming industry to preempt such threats. Many tools have been adapted to control threats against children in the form of content filtering and parental controls, thereby restricting contact with children to protect them from child predators. Different approaches utilizing machine learning (ML) techniques to detect child predatory behavior have been designed to provide potential detection and protection in this context. In this paper, we survey online threats to children in the gaming environment and present the limitations of existing solutions that address these threats. We also aimed to present the challenges that ML techniques face in protecting children against predatory behavior by presenting a systematic review of the available techniques in the literature. Therefore, this analysis provides not only recommendations to stakeholders to develop policies and practices that safeguard children when gaming, but also to the gaming industry to continue providing appropriate measures for a safe and entertaining gaming environment.

Enhancing Child Safety in Online Gaming: The Development and Application of Protectbot, an AI-Powered Chatbot Framework

“…Research on detecting predatory behavior online has largely concentrated on analyzing social media chat logs [38][39][40][41][42]. Despite the significant body of work in this area, there remains a notable research gap in examining such behaviors within online gaming platforms [2]. This gap is largely due to the difficulties in accessing public datasets of online gaming chats, where privacy concerns limit data collection and preservation.…”

“…In the United States, a staggering 90% of children consider online gaming as their favorite pastime [1]. However, the increasing popularity of online gaming has also highlighted significant risks within these virtual environments, particularly for younger audiences [2]. Representing a third of the global internet user base, which totals 4.95 billion, children often engage in online activities unsupervised, exposing them to cyberbullying, harassment, and, more alarmingly, grooming and pedophilia [3,4].…”

“…In addressing the need to protect children from online predators, especially within gaming platforms, current methodologies primarily analyze chat logs post-interaction, a process that inherently delays intervention and poses potential risks to child safety online [2]. This recognition highlights the urgency for a shift towards proactive detection mechanisms that can identify early indicators of predatory behavior, offering more immediate and effective protection for minors engaged in online gaming.…”

“…In the quest to shield children from online predators, particularly on gaming platforms, current methodologies predominantly focus on analyzing chat logs for predatory behavior [2]. This approach, while valuable, operates within a limited scope, primarily conducting post-chat analysis.…”