Australia’s eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman-Grant has put major gaming platforms on notice, demanding details on how they prevent the grooming and radicalisation of children.
Formal notices have been issued to Roblox, Fortnite, Minecraft, and Steam, requiring the companies to outline how they identify, prevent, and respond to such risks.
The move reflects growing concern about the role of gaming platforms as social spaces for young users, where communication features can expose children to harm.
Roblox has already moved to strengthen protections, announcing a three-tier account system to comply with Australia’s under-16s social media ban, even though it is not one of the platforms covered by the law.
It has introduced “Kids” accounts for ages 5 to 8, which allow no communication with other users, and “Select” accounts for those aged 9 to 15, which limit chat to approved contacts or users of a similar age.
Fortnite, developed by Epic Games, offers parental controls including chat restrictions, purchase limitations, and time-tracking for children’s playtime. Players under 13 are offered “cabined accounts,” which restrict chat and purchases until parental consent is granted.
Minecraft allows parents to control whether their child can join multiplayer games, add and remove friends, and chat with people not on their friends list.
Steam, primarily a digital storefront, also includes parental controls and limited social networking features.
Despite these safeguards, concerns remain about the extent to which which parents can permit interaction with unknown users, creating opportunities for exploitation by sexual predators or extremists.
“Gaming platforms are amongst the online spaces most heavily used by Australian children, functioning not only as places to play, but also as places to socialise and communicate,” Inman-Grant said.
“Our own research (pdf) into children and gaming showed around 9 in 10 children aged 8 to 17 in Australia had played online games.
“Predatory adults know this and target children through grooming or embedding terrorist and violent extremist narratives in gameplay, increasing the risks of contact offending, radicalisation, and other off-platform harms.”
The commissioner said her office had seen numerous media reports of grooming across all four platforms, as well as terrorist and violent extremist-themed gameplay such as Islamic State-inspired games and recreations of mass shootings on Roblox, and far right imagery reproduced Minecraft.
Some games in Fortnite has referenced historical and political events, including the Second World War-era Jasenovac concentration camp, while Steam is reportedly a hub for a number of extremist communities.
The video game platforms face fines of up to $825,000 per day should they fail to comply with the commissioner’s notice.
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