A study carried out by an anti-bullying charity found that 57% of the young people it surveyed had experienced bullying online when playing games.<\/p>\n
In addition, 22% said they had stopped playing a game as a result.<\/p>\n
Ditch the Label surveyed around 2,500 young members of the virtual hotel platform Habbo, aged between 12 and 25.<\/p>\n
One 16-year-old gamer, Bailey Mitchell, told the BBC he had experienced bullying while playing online games since the age of 10.<\/p>\n
“If you’re going to school every day and you’re being bullied in school you want to go home to your computer to escape,” he said.<\/p>\n
“So if you’re getting more abuse thrown at you it’s going to put you off doing anything social – it has for a lot of people I know, me included.<\/p>\n
“It’s regular, every other game you’re in, there’s always someone who has a mic or types in chat. They’ll call you some random abusive thing they can think of.”<\/p>\n
Mr Mitchell said he regularly received death threats but enjoyed playing online as the competition against others made the games more challenging.<\/p>\n
“Now, when I get things, I’ll reply with something funny or ignore it. But when I was 10 it was like: who are these people, why are they being mean to me?”<\/p>\n
Ditch the Label chief executive Liam Hackett said his charity was launching a global campaign to try to tackle the problem.<\/p>\n
“Bullying within online gaming environments is a real issue,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We are standing for acceptance and tolerance within our games and making the internet a better place.”<\/p>\n
The report also found:<\/p>\n
Around half of the respondents said they believed extra human moderation would help prevent bullying from occurring.<\/p>\n
“Online games are often violent and based upon conflict,” said Dr Ian Rivers, a psychologist at the University of Strathclyde.<\/p>\n
“However this study also shows us that we also need to look at the ways in which people interact online while gaming.”<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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