Children’s gaming risks do not stop at the edge of the game
Ofcom’s Growing Up Gaming report shows that gaming is a normal and often positive part of childhood, but it also combines play with communication, spending and contact with people children have never met in person. More than half of children who game online said they sometimes play with people they have met only online, while contact with strangers was parents’ leading concern.
What it could improve
The evidence moves the discussion beyond whether children should play games. It identifies where design can improve: age settings, contact permissions, chat, reporting, spending controls and graduated safeguards. It also recognises the social, creative and developmental value of gaming.
What remains unresolved
Ofcom’s family guidance is useful, but checking settings and discussing contacts cannot carry the whole safety burden. Gaming systems and connected services must make safer interaction the default.
- A child may enter an inaccurate age, use a shared account or move between a console, game, chat service and livestreaming platform with different protections.
- Contact restrictions attached to one game do not automatically follow the child into connected voice, messaging or community services.
- Children with limiting or impacting conditions and looked-after children may face different patterns of exposure and need accessible safeguards.
- Purchasing controls should address persuasive design and saved payment details, not rely only on parents monitoring every transaction.
- Safety evaluation should test actual contact, recommendation, reporting and spending outcomes, including attempts to bypass age settings.
The Child-Friendly Internet perspective
A Child-Friendly Internet should recognise gaming as an ecosystem rather than an isolated application. Privacy-preserving child assurance could help participating consoles, networks, games and communication services activate the right developmental safeguards without each collecting identity documents. Every service would remain responsible for safe design, moderation and reporting.
- Make stranger contact and communication controls appropriate by default.
- Carry protective context across participating games, consoles, networks and connected communication services.
- Limit commercial pressure and purchasing friction for younger users.
- Preserve creativity, friendship and play while reducing foreseeable risk.
The central question
Can safety follow the child across the connected gaming experience without turning play into repeated identity checks?