Gaming and Online Harms

Understanding Risks and Building Safer Online Spaces

Online gaming environments have evolved into complex, global social ecosystems, connecting millions of users across platforms, communities and virtual worlds. These spaces offer significant opportunities for creativity, social interaction and positive engagement. At the same time, they are increasingly environments where a range of online harms manifest, including harassment, abuse, extortion, coercion, the sharing of terrorist content and other illicit activities.

Through its Cybercrime and Online Harms workstream, UNICRI’s work in this space responds to an ever-evolving gaming landscape and broader ecosystem of online harms. It seeks to support policymakers, law enforcement, as well as the gaming industry and communities, in better understanding risks across gaming and adjacent digital spaces, and in developing practical, prevention-oriented responses. This includes strengthening the capacity of relevant stakeholders to identify and address harmful behaviours, while promoting safe, inclusive and resilient gaming environments.

A key focus of this work is on terrorism and violent extremism in gaming, as one of the most concerning dimensions of this broader ecosystem of harms. Evidence shows that terrorist and violent extremist actors exploit gaming and adjacent platforms for direct engagement, including recruitment, propaganda and communication, as well as for indirect influence through gamified narratives, cultural memes and modded content. At the same time, UNICRI actively promotes the use of games and gaming-based approaches as tools for prevention, resilience-building and positive engagement in the fight against terrorism and violent extremism.

Through research, capacity-building and multi-stakeholder engagement, UNICRI works to bridge gaps between policymakers, law enforcement, industry and communities. The objective is to support more coordinated, context-sensitive and rights-based approaches that contribute to safer gaming environments and strengthen the positive potential of gaming as a space for connection, creativity and development.

UNICRI’s work in this space is supported by the Government of Japan and in close collaboration with the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT).

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