The British Esports Association has developed a brand new Parent & Carers guide working with the NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children). This new guide aims to inform parents and carers about esports and childrens online safety. 

It can be worrying for parents and carers to overhear their children talking to essentially strangers in games and online safety is paramount for every single parent. 

The guide which can be found here covers a range of topics including the benefits of Esports such as careers, qualifications and other things that your child be a part of. It also talks about how inclusive and diverse it can be. It also covers a section on how to get involved with your child and encourage them to get involved safely and looking after their wellbeing whilst gaming.

Tom Dore, Head of Education at the British Esports Association said of the report:

At British Esports we’re helping to establish industry standards for safeguarding and keeping young people safe online. Developing the Parent & Carer guide in collaboration with NSPCC has allowed us to celebrate many of the positives around esports, and also highlight important issues around safeguarding and online safety.

It is crucial as an industry that we’re doing everything we can to keep young people safe while participating in esports. We should look to traditional sport, and other established industries, to learn from their ongoing work. British Esports strongly encourages all stakeholders in the esports industry to scrutinise their own practise around their work with young people and prioritise safeguarding and online safety throughout their organisations.

Christian McMullen, Head of Professional Engagement at NSPCC said:

The NSPCC is delighted to have worked with British Esports on developing a supporting guide for parents and carers to help them understand the industry and the steps they are taking to keep their children safe.  

We want to empower parents with the confidence, knowledge and tools they need to identify and report concerns in their children’s sports, and the online world is no different.”

British Esports has also worked in greater detail with the NSPCC to develop our own internal policies and procedures that place safeguarding at the heart of all our work including the British Esports Student Champs and our other projects and events involving young people.

As in traditional sport, all our staff and volunteers are DBS checked and complete appropriate safeguarding training. We also have clear reporting systems in place to address any issues or concerns that may arise.