Unfortunately it feels like no surprise that online abuse is rampant in online gaming. It seems people of all ages are party to foul language, harassment, and more when they’re online playing all sorts of titles and genres. A new study shows that at least 62% of young gamers can report being harassed online.
As TheGamer writes, the Anti Defamation League (ADL) has conducted a study which shows over 60% of young gamers have suffered online abuse. That’s over 14 million people between the ages of 13 and 17 for some context, and this is over just a six month period.
The games that were reportedly the worst for online harassment occurrences were Valorant with 89%, Call of Duty with 85%, DOTA 2 with 84%, Fortnite with 81% and then CS:GO with 80%. The next five from highest to lowest were PlayerUnknown’s Battleground, Roblox, Grand Theft Auto Online, Apex Legends and then Among Us.
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When asked which games young people stopped playing or were more careful in due to the harassment they received, the top answers were Call of Duty (40%), PUBG (40%), CS: GO (33%), Valorant (33%), and World of Warcraft (29%).Valorant and Call of Duty seem to have issues across the board with this behaviour, but DOTA 2 (28%) and League of Legends (25%) are similarly known for their toxic environments.
Additionally the way in which young people were experiencing harassment differed. 39% reported abuse from in-match voice chat and 37% reported it from text-chat. Out-of-match text and voice chat had 21% each. But the highest percentage of abuse seemed to come from gameplay itself at 43%, which includes throwing games etc.
Of course, for those of us that play a lot of games, it’s no surprise that harassment exists in online communities. Especially during lockdown, many of us had to turn to games as our main form of entertainment, so everyone has been spending more time on their tech as a whole. It’s just a shame that some people take gaming too far and use it as a platform to be terrible to others.
Featured Image Credit: Riot Games / PexelsTopics: Valorant, League Of Legends, Call Of Duty, CSGO, Fortnite