A new harassment hotline for the gaming industry, known as the Games and Online Harassment Hotline, will debut on August 3. The brainchild of Feminist Frequency founder Anita Sarkeesian, the service will be available for streamers, players and competitors. The hotline hopes to support those in the gaming industry who have suffered mistreatment.
The Games and Online Harassment Hotline, described as an “inclusive resource for anyone, no matter how you identify,” will be a free and confidential sms-based hotline that will provide emotional support, referrals and resources to developers, streamers, players and competitors. Sarkeesian has worked with Christopher Vu Gandin Le, who has nearly 20 years of experience with crisis hotlines, to design The Games and Online Harassment Hotline.
An introductory video states that while millions of people are playing for fun, competing or simply socializing, there also instances of abuse, harassment, bullying, isolation, depression that result from gaming. The video adds that victims can include friends, children, co-workers or even oneself.
The Games and Online Harassment Hotline will allow those seeking help to send messages from anywhere in the United States 24/7. Users will be contacted by an agent that has been trained in crisis response, risk assessment, suicide prevention and sexual assault from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. PT.
The website for the hotline also lists resources for legal support and aid, including the Time’s Up Legal Fund, mental health organizations that specialize in services for the gaming community, LGBTIA+ resources and numerous other contacts.
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The service, which goes live on August 3, is a response to the countless accusations of emotional and sexual harassment online in the last month. Incidents of harassment have led to the dismissal of top gaming executives and the restructuring of the French-owned Ubisoft gaming company in an effort to respond to toxic conduct.
Feminist Frequency, founded in 2009, is a nonprofit educational organization that examines the media’s relationship to societal concerns that particularly affect women, such as sexuality and gender. Sarkeesian will serve as the hotline’s executive director. To use the hotline, users simply need to text SUPPORT to 23368 from anywhere in the U.S.
Source: Hollywood Reporter
