Why games need to protect children from grooming

The project was launched with a roundtable discussion at Abertay on Monday.

Representatives from London-based Space Ape Games, the InGAME (Innovation for Games and Media Enterprise) research and development project, and Beano Studios all attended.

Key issues discussed included the UK government’s digital charter – a rolling programme of work which agrees on norms and rules for the online world.

It states that people have the same rights and expect the same behaviour, external online as they do offline.

The partnership has also examined new standards for games designers laid out by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), which was published earlier this year.

It covered issues such as switching off location tracking, parental controls and the avoidance of “nudge techniques”, external which can encourage children to provide unnecessary personal data.

At the time of publication, the ICO said its proposals reflected people’s growing mistrust of social media and online services.

Attendees also exchanged views on the recent Commons report on immersive and addictive technologies, external.