Safer gaming is a cornerstone of the digital safety movement. Here's how to achieve it

In today’s digitalized childhood, gaming is a parallel playground, classroom and social hub. It is estimated that nearly 80% of all children between 5 and 18 play video games in some fashion. For millions of children and teens, online games are where identities are formed, friendships are fostered and self-expression thrives. But, with screens becoming an integral part of our everyday lives, the question confronting parents, policy-makers and platforms is not whether young people are gaming, but whether they’re doing so safely.

The question has never been more urgent. Children’s screen time has surged, often unsupervised. Platforms that were once the confines of adults are flooded with children and teen users. Harms like grooming, bullying, exploitation and algorithmic manipulation are no longer theoretical; they unfold in real-time, often out of sight and without warning.

That is what the World Economic Forum’s Global Coalition for Digital Safety is working on. In its recent report, The Intervention Journey: A Roadmap to Effective Digital Safety Measures, two interventions — Microsoft’s Xbox Gaming Safety Toolkit that provides an overview of safety risks and advice for responding and k-ID’s platform that enables any game to implement age-appropriate experiences — stand out for their technical sophistication and for what they represent, a broader shift towards proactive, inclusive and context-aware solutions.

Microsoft’s Xbox Gaming Safety Toolkit goes beyond the traditional frame of parental controls. It's not just about toggling a few privacy settings or scanning the terms of service. It's about equipping parents, many of whom may not have grown up gaming, to be confident co-pilots in their child’s online life.

Developed with educators, civil society organizations and policy-makers in Australia, New Zealand and later expanded into Asia, the toolkit provides age-specific guidance, real-life scenarios and culturally-localized advice. It acknowledges that parents are often left in the dark, overwhelmed by rapidly evolving threats and unsure where to begin. Rather than lecturing or moralizing, the Toolkit empowers them to engage, to ask questions and, most importantly, to participate. It underscores the need for dialogue, on top of the parental control tools provided and proactive moderation efforts by the Xbox platform.

But perhaps most critically, the Xbox Toolkit understands that tools only work when they are known, understood and trusted. That is why it was rolled out not just through online channels, but through local partnerships, meeting families where they are, not just where the product lives.

k-ID tackles the problem at its root, by enabling any game to implement age-appropriate experiences for anyone, anywhere in the world. It is no longer sufficient to simply ask for a birth date and hope for honesty or to block kids from entering a game based on self-declaration. k-ID’s platform transforms how a game recognizes its audiences by implementing privacy-preserving, age-assurance techniques. From there, k-ID's platform adapts the game's user experience, from available features to content moderation, based on age, geography, permissions, consents and local legal requirements.

This is what digital safety by design looks like. Crucially its use does not only serve the industry giants. Its services are designed to be affordable and accessible, enabling even small or medium-sized gaming companies to comply with global child safety laws without massive engineering overhauls. This is critical in a world where digital safety has been too often a privilege of the most resourced companies.

It helps challenge the norm that innovation comes first and safety comes later.

Though these two interventions differ in approach, they are united by a common philosophy. Whether by equipping parents with better tools or enabling platforms to anticipate and mitigate risks before they materialize, Microsoft and k-ID show that trust must be built proactively, collaboratively and contextually.

This ethos is at the heart of the World Economic Forum's Global Coalition for Digital Safety. It brings together stakeholders across industries, sectors and geographies — from civil society and regulators to tech companies. It does not merely catalogue best practices. It maps interventions against the intervention journey from identification, design, implementation and feedback, measurement and transparency.

The gaming sector, with its vast user base and complex social dynamics, is fertile ground for this approach.

Artificial intelligence is transforming how content is created and consumed. We are seeing an increase in digital sovereignty and regulations and young people are spending more time online than ever before. The question of gaming safety is no longer niche. It is fundamental to the broader digital safety movement.

First, safety must be embedded at the design stage, not added as a reaction to a crisis. That means thinking holistically about the user journey, anticipating risk at every touchpoint and designing for dignity and a better user experience, not just compliance.

Second, regulators must be clear about what compliance means for people in their jurisdiction. Today, platforms face a legal maze that is costly to navigate and often uncertain in practice. k-ID offers a solution where games can automate compliance that is consistent, user-centric and based on each jurisdiction`s requirements.

Third, digital literacy must be a core part of education for youth and parents. We need to treat it with the same seriousness as reading and maths. Youth users should be empowered not just to block bullies, but to understand their rights, question what they see and shape the norms of the communities they inhabit.

Finally, companies must recognize children not as users, but as citizens, with agency, dignity and a right to protection. That means co-creating tools with youth themselves, listening to their needs and building products that reflect their lived realities.

From gameplay to community, the future of gaming is not just playable. With the right vision and cooperation, it can be trustworthy, empowering, inclusive and safe by design.