The addiction to gaming on devices has surpassed even the Hollywood film industry in terms of financial value. This level will reach $196 billion in 2023.
These digital platforms are becoming a base for extremists to recruit children, teenagers and adults to support them. Given this situation, there is an unprecedented collaboration between counter-terrorism experts and gaming companies.
To discuss this growing threat, UN News’ Sarah Daly spoke exclusively with Steven Sequeira, Deputy Director of the UN Counter-Terrorism Centre, and Leif Wildsen, Acting Director of the UN Crime and Justice Institute for Research (UNICRI). The Counter-Terrorism Center is a part of the United Nations Office on Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT).
Senior UN officials, held in early December New quest unlocked hosted an important event on the topic, bringing together gaming companies, policy makers and researchers to address violent extremism in gaming spaces.
“The alarming trend has created the need for a collaborative research approach with the gaming industry and similar platforms,” says Steven Sequeira.
He also shared information about how extremist groups are increasingly targeting gaming venues and similar platforms – Discord and Telegram.
This interview has been edited for clarity…
UN News: Your joint event, New Quest Unlocked, brought together UNICRI and UNOCT as well as gaming companies, policy makers and researchers. What inspired this collaboration?
Steven Sequeira: Last year i.e. in 2023, the financial value of gaming industry and surrounding platforms was $196 billion. By comparison, the Hollywood film industry was worth about $40 billion, so the gaming industry is five times the size of the film industry.
Terrorist and violent extremist groups are reaching young people through these platforms, and promotional videos are increasingly appearing on Discord, Telegram and TikTok.
This dangerous trend has given rise to the need to research and work with the gaming industry, related forums and of course our members and the governments of member countries.
UN News: Recent intelligence reports indicate that the threat level is higher than previously understood. What are you really looking at?
Steven Sequeira: While gaming has many positive aspects in terms of social connectivity around the world – there is a growing risk that terrorist and violent extremist groups are using these platforms and gaming-related platforms to spread their messages.
The results are startling: in Australia alone, one in five counter-terrorism cases now involve young people, and gaming platforms have a role in every investigation.
UN News: These findings challenge common assumptions about gaming platforms. How did this situation arise?
Steven Sequeira: The gaming industry is not only open to the youth. The average age of gamers is increasing and boys and girls and men and women are about equally active compared to previous years.
UN News: Your research focuses specifically on the gaming market in Africa. Why is this area so important to understand future challenges?
Leif Wildsen: Africa has indeed become one of the fastest growing markets for mobile games. With an unprecedented year-on-year growth rate of 11 percent, the continent represents both a tremendous opportunity and a potential vulnerability.
Our goal is to better understand the gaps and challenges in our own understanding of this threat across industries, communities, strategies used, and continents.
UN News: You are developing something called ‘gaming intelligence’ as part of global prevention strategies. How will it change digital security?
Leif Wildsen: Gaming Intelligence focuses on tracking extremist content and recruitment activities from open source platforms such as games, chat and social media. This intelligence will inform early warning systems, helping to detect and prevent radicalization at an early stage.
UN News: How important is artificial intelligence to this global defense system?
Leif Wildsen: Given the size of the ecosystem, we want to develop and experiment with AI-based tools to edit and modify advanced content within standards.
It is important that we work together with the gaming community, private sector companies, and gamers to educate ourselves and build resilience in the community.
UN News: As we enter the new year 2025, what are the concrete outcomes that will make the gaming space safer?
Leif Wildsen: By creating shared global standards and fostering collaboration between governments, technology companies and civil society, we can provide a framework to address these threats in a more integrated way.
Steven Sequeira: The Global Digital Compact recognizes these dual realities of the digital age and calls for a unified global commitment to ensure that digital spaces are safe, inclusive and consistent with human rights principles.
Ultimately, it’s about finding the right actors in the gaming system who have a voice, but who are open to understanding what and where the risks are and how to mitigate them. It can really help make our gaming ecosystem stronger and more resilient to violent extremism.