SINGAPORE – Video games offer a space for fun and creativity, but for some people, they can become a hotbed of bullying.

Roughly one in five gamers between 13 and 18 years old feels bullied in video games by other players, according to a landmark survey on online gaming here by the authorities announced on Feb 13.

Many parents are kept in the dark – nearly half of the youth who felt bullied in games did not tell their parents, the Ministry of Communications and Information found.

Online safety advocates urge parents to familiarise themselves with games popular among youth, as well as the safety features available to them.

If you are clueless about the world of online gaming, here are some games and apps that demonstrate the issues parents should note.

Discord

Although Discord is not a game, it is the communications platform of choice for most players to facilitate voice calls while gaming. Simply put, if your children play online games on a computer, they are probably on Discord.

The platform, which has at least 150 million users, allows players to conveniently hop between chatrooms to chat with players of different games, including often-anonymous strangers in public chatrooms.

The platform has also been notorious for failing to crack down on explicit content being circulated in its endless channels. Chief executive Jason Citron was among tech bosses hauled to the United States Congress on Feb 1 to account for the proliferation of child sexual abuse materials on their platforms.

Discord introduced parental controls in late 2023, allowing parents to see who their teens are talking to and details of the servers they have joined, without giving away information about what their children are saying. Parents will first need to ask their children for a QR code to connect their accounts for supervision.

Within the settings of Discord, users can also task the app to scan and delete direct messages that contain explicit content and restrict messages to members they know.

Roblox

Free to play, Roblox connects players to an expansive multiplayer world with more than 200 million players and dozens of games like shooters, puzzles and those created by other users. For all intents and purposes, it is the metaverse of video games. 

And unless players are willing to pay, they will most certainly play with strangers. Players can chat verbally with other players over a microphone, or via in-game chatboxes.

For all its fun, Roblox has evolved into a free-for-all and a headache for law enforcement – a dark corner where scammers, sexual predators and extremists lurk, and lewd content runs rampant.

In 2023, Singapore’s Internal Security Department (ISD) discovered that a radicalised teen had joined several Roblox servers, which had virtual worlds that replicated conflict zones occupied by terror group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

The ISD urges families to look out for worrying changes in the behaviour of those around them, for example, if they frequently surf radical sites or post extremist views on social media.

Parents can also add age-appropriate experiences within the game by enabling Allowed Experiences, which will let young players join only servers that match the age recommendations set.

Genshin Impact

The widely popular free-to-play Chinese action role-playing game Genshin Impact is typically played alone or with small groups of friends, but parents should take note of in-game purchases.

Such mechanics – also found in popular games such as Fifa and Star Wars: Battlefront, and free-to-play mobile games – have been criticised for its similarities to gambling.

The upgrades can be purchased with real money to give players a leg up, but the paid items are randomised, so players will not know what they are buying.

In 2021, a Singaporean father who was not familiar with in-game purchases was saddled with a $20,000 credit card bill after his 18-year-old daughter went on a spending spree in Genshin Impact.

Minecraft

Like Lego, the building block-based multiplayer game Minecraft has been a hit with children and adults alike, amassing a community of more than 100 million gamers.

But as with any multiplayer game, such as shooters Valorant and Fortnite, players can encounter swearing and harmful behaviour while on its multiplayer servers or while connected to Discord.

Minecraft offers more parental controls than the typical video game. Parents can limit the ability to join multiplayer servers and disable chats from players who are not on their children’s friends list – so long as a parent’s account is paired.

Microsoft has also rolled out gaming safety control tools for its family of Xbox Live games, which include Minecraft. Parents can set limits to their children’s playtime and censor foul language.

Minecraft also has child-friendly servers that approve of players only if parents have completed a form with their children’s information.

Tips for parents

Read up, or play: Read up on games that are popular, taking note of their online interaction features and what safety controls are available. Parents can go a step further to play the games to familiarise themselves with their child’s experience.
Look out for multiplayer feature: Games that allow players to connect with others can foster teamwork and healthy competition but can also expose young players to strangers. If possible, scan through the games’ menus to toggle off the option to interact with unknown players.
Don’t ignore signs: Look out for children who suddenly become withdrawn or who cut off communication channels. Show concern for young gamers, even if the issues seem mundane to grown-ups, as such matters can still affect them emotionally.
If your child is a bully: Try to understand what triggers a child to behave in an antisocial way. Parents and children can agree on a “strike” system with certain consequences, like a time-out for repeated bad behaviour.