Sexual harassment in on-line games like Overwatch might quickly be punishable by regulation – at the very least in South Korea. A proposed invoice from the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family would make some forms of poisonous behaviour in gaming chat a criminal offense.
The information involves us through a Korean information supply, so an iffy translation makes it exhausting to nail down the main points – and it appears the invoice itself has not been locked down simply but. Broadly, it appears the intention is to increase the punishments in place for office sexual harassment to non-working working areas, together with on-line games.
Overwatch is particularly cited within the Naver article (noticed by Dot Esports) as a game the place harassment is “rampant.” The game’s choice for voice chat over textual content chat is introduced up, probably insinuating that vocal harassment is value treating extra critically, although that is an space the place it actually seems element is getting misplaced in translation.
Toxic behaviour in on-line games has been an issue from the start, and it’s solely gotten extra prevalent over time. It’s not all the time gendered, although it typically is – and virtually all the time turns into far worse as end result. Developers have tried to deal with the issue in several methods, together with measures like Rainbow Six Siege’s auto-ban for toxic language.
That’s nonetheless a number of steps in need of authorized intervention, nevertheless. Blizzard reviews a pointy downturn in Overwatch toxicity since endorsements have been added, although it’s actually not an answer that ends harassment in all its types.
Source
