This project examined the gaming ecosystem in Brazil and the UK, asking two key questions:

• What opportunities and risks do children face in digital gaming? and
• How can different stakeholders share responsibility to mitigate risks and promote children’s rights?

By adopting the Kaleidoscope of Play framework (People, Places, Products) alongside the 4Cs model (Content, Contact, Conduct, Contract), the study mapped out the complex, interrelated influences within the digital gaming ecosystem. The research agenda proposes a child-rights-centred governance model for digital gaming. The report emphasises the need for ethical design, cross-sector responsibility, updated regulatory frameworks and stronger protection in adjacent platforms.

Publications

Opportunities and risks in the digital gaming ecosystem: insights from Brazil and the UK

This report explores the complexities of the digital gaming ecosystem,with a particular focus on the opportunities, risks and harms as perceived by professionals in relation to children’s experiences. This report draws on a literature review and interviews with 30 professionals conducted in Brazil and the United Kingdom, spanning the fields of health, education, the game industry and child protection. Read the report.

Objectives

The principle objectives of the study were: 

• to propose a framework for assessing the risks, harms, and opportunities within the digital gaming ecosystem
• to define the variables that influence the progression from risk to harm
• map the roles and responsibilities of actors

Methodology

The study is qualitative and exploratory in nature, drawing from 30 semi-structured expert interviews (15 in Brazil, 15 in the UK) conducted between September and November 2024. Participants were drawn from health, education, technology and child protection sectors.

Outcomes

• Map and visualise the gaming ecosystem, understanding what accountability looks like.
• Inform practical tools and policy guidelines for regulators, game developers, educators, and families.
• To foster safer, empowering, and developmentally appropriate digital gaming experiences for children and adolescents, upholding their rights.

Relevant reading

Fortim, I. (2024) Opportunities, risks, and harms in digital games. in: ICT Kids Online Brazil survey on internet use by children in Brazil (p119).

Meet the team

Ivelise Fortim is a professor at the Faculty of Human and Health Sciences at Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo and is the Principal Investigator for RIGHTS.AI in Brazil. She is a specialist in Jungian psychology through COGEAE-PUC-SP and in Career Counselling from Sedes Sapientiae. She is the coordinator of Janus – Laboratory of Psychology and Information and Communication Technology Studies. She is a partner at Homo Ludens Innovation and Knowledge and the president of the Institute Criança em Jogo. Senior Visiting Fellow at the Department of Media and Communication, LSE.

The research was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of PUC-SP, Protocol number: 7.195.851, Brazil.

Partially funded by the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), Grant number: 2024/02827

Banner image by Freepik.