At the Arucas Gaming Fest last month we learned more about video games and best practises with different experts and their panels. On the one hand there were sense of community and frustration tolerance as benefits from gaming. On the other, teacher and psycho-pedagogue Iker Martínez from org PantallasAmigas talked about dealing with social relations within online video game platforms.
Martínez stressed how, no matter how familiar parents and teachers may be with gaming in the new generations, "we don't realise about the social component of video games in bullying", underlining the so-called "social infection of insult" as endemic factor. And as a clear example, he pointed out how "parents don't know that you can report harassment and misbehaviour within the games themselves".
Other than reporting abuse, during the session the pedagogue shared a few pieces of advice and answered questions from students present in the room who really didn't know what to do when they act as witnesses, mainly with the most common case of women being harassed or looked down on (and with a big percentage having to adopt a male persona to be respected and included in the game). And what are those tips and tricks in order to be readier or more protected in a potentially toxic environment? "You have to surround yourself by good and honest people, but also we all have to improve education in this regard and everyone has to be taught that video games are not for the boys only. And there has to be a lot of prevention".
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