[Trigger warning: This article discusses sexual harassment, misogyny, and instances of sexual violence in online gaming. Some experiences shared may be confronting or upsetting for readers.]
I grew up in a computer café. The front half of the shop had about 20 computers all lined up in rows of desks. The back half of the shop was a kitchen, some bedrooms, a laundry and a bathroom.
Not the most glamorous living, but endless fun for a kid.
Fast forward 20 years or so to today. I play video games pretty much daily, and I play competitively. Which unfortunately means I’ve been subjected to my fair share of sexual harassment online as a woman with a conventionally feminine voice and general demeanour.
I’m not the first and I certainly won’t be the last woman to endure these types of interactions while enjoying my favourite video games, but that’s part of the problem.
Why aren’t the companies who host these games doing more to protect women?
When we experience sexual harassment, we can develop long-term, negative side effects and in the short-term, withdraw from games, defeminise ourselves or avoid communicating verbally altogether. All of which can have further impacts on gameplay, cooperation (which is often encouraged in competitive play) and other offline elements of our lives.
While gaming companies do seem willing to moderate and place restrictions on perpetrating players or temporarily ban them from certain activities, there’s a distinct lack of trust from female players that any change has been enacted.
There’s a lot of things they can do better; I’ll tell you that much.
Sexual harassment in video games is a form of hate speech
It may be something of a bold statement to some, I know. And although sexual harassment doesn’t typically fall under the umbrella of hate speech, “hate speech is very context dependent”, and its contents can be as well. The two often intersect and overlap (Sinpeng et al., 2021, p. 38).
For online video games with competitive scenes, the player base tends to skew towards men. These team-based games require cooperation to achieve common goals against other teams. This encourages interactions between members of the team, which can result in particularly toxic (and sometimes misogynistic) men harassing their female teammates.
As someone who’s been on the receiving end of this treatment more than once, I still can’t quite figure out why. The objective of the game is to win as a group, so why harass one of your teammates and make them unwilling, unable or otherwise inhibited while playing?
Defining hate speech itself has always been a tricky endeavour too. Granted, it tends to be “speech that can harm immediately and over time”, which absolutely occurs in instances where women have experienced video game sexual harassment (Sinpeng et al., 2021, p. 6). Terry Flew (2021, p. 91) even notes that “the language itself is not the primary defining feature of hate speech … arguments are often … presented as jokes or ironic commentary”, which suggests that plenty of those online don’t view their comments as inherently harmful.
What one person might consider to be a funny joke or witty flirtation, someone else could take to heart and view as having a “corrosive effect on [their] wellbeing, identity and community” (Sinpeng et al., 2021, p. 4). The same can be said of unwanted advances or jokes about romantic or sexual feelings expressed towards someone.
When it comes to an online setting, hate speech can “be subtle and not overtly aggressive in its framing”, yet female and female presenting gamers can experience heightened forms of aggression when confronted with sexual harassment as well (Sinpeng et al., 2021, p. 12).
Other instances of sexual harassment come from a place of obvious misogyny – I have encountered men who decide that simply because I’m a woman, I should be playing a ‘woman’s’ role. This often means switching from a role such as damage to support or healer to accommodate and if I refuse to comply, sexual harassment often ensues. This weaponisation of sexual harassment is undoubtedly born from misogynistic views and is a form of hate speech given its attempts to subjugate a minority group in this setting.
How is it different to offline sexual harassment?
Offline sexual harassment has been studied extensively, whereas online sexual harassment has typically focused on the male perspective or psychological factors. It also “has its own unique features” that result from the online format (Zhou & Peterson, 2025, p. 2038).
As Zhou and Peterson (2025) point out, these features can be:
- Anonymity providing a sense of security for perpetrators
- The ability to target numerous women
- The ability to target women regardless of distance
Likewise, what we understand of women’s experiences and the effects sexual harassment has on them mentally and emotionally are “based on factors that do not necessarily exist in online gaming environments” (Zhou & Peterson, 2025, p. 2040).
The simplest way to describe some of these interactions is by likening them to being cat called when walking through the city. It’s unwanted, unwelcome, unpleasant and distressing. But it’s also something that strangers do.
Zhou and Peterson (2025, p. 2046) conducted a case study to further investigate the effects this kind of sexual harassment has on women in gaming communities. They found that of the 89 women or female-presenting participants who answered their questions, 79.8% of them described the perpetrators of sexual harassment incidents as being strangers.
“It is easier to victimize a stranger due to the anonymity and accessibility features of the Internet” (Zhou & Peterson, 2025, p. 2041)
Threats of sexual assault are also a notable entry to sexual harassment in video games, but what may be more disturbing still is reports of “simulated sexual assault against the woman’s avatar” (Zhou & Peterson, 2025, p. 2046). Yet again, something I’ve experienced on more than one occasion, where a man will use his avatar to visually recreate sexually assaulting mine. Worse still, this experience happened with three men doing so at once, while verbally sexually harassing me.
Granted, this is an outlier in my experience of video games, and yet it’s one that’s going to stick with me. It affects me, even days later. For some, that kind of incident can have even more lasting effects.
What video game developers are already doing about it
Most online video games allow players to report suspicious activity or instances of general harassment or hate speech. Depending on the game, some only allow a simple checking of specific category boxes, whereas others let you input additional details or reasons.
Moderation is also taken a step further in other cases where a list of banned words such as slurs has been implemented to prevent players from sending them via text chat. In some games, such as the notoriously toxic League of Legends, players can be automatically muted by the system for attempting to use these words.
Voice chat integrated into games is another story entirely. Games cannot be actively monitored for verbal abuse or sexual harassment at any given time. One solution implemented by Marvel Rivals is twofold:
- 1. By participating in the game and using its voice chat system, players implicitly agree to the recording of their gameplay and voice chat usage.
- 2. Players who violate the terms of use of the game and are reported by others will then have their behaviour reviewed. It is unclear whether this is an automated system or performed by a content management team internally.
This solution, while not perfect, does ensure that players are held somewhat accountable for their actions and the misuse of this communication system. Rights to use voice chat can be revoked, alongside the rights to participate in competitive play.
What gamers are doing about it
One of the few ways that women in these positions can spread awareness of this issue and, in essence, take power back for themselves is to share their experiences. By recording instances of verbal abuse and sexual harassment, popular female video game influencers draw attention to the subject and encourage their fans to jump in and support their fellow female gamers in future.
Granted, most men who choose to stand up for their fellow gamer during these occurrences are often called ‘white knights’ in a demeaning or mocking tone. Still, choosing not to be a bystander and to report these toxic teammates is better than nothing at all.
It’s not enough
That said, video game companies aren’t doing enough.
Yes, we have reporting systems and messages to tell us when someone’s been restricted from play or chat capabilities, but the lack of trust is palpable.
I’ve encountered a situation where I reported someone for verbally abusing me in Marvel Rivals and received an automated, in-game message from the game’s system informing me that the individual was restricted from competitive play. I naively accepted this as a positive outcome, thinking they had been appropriately punished, only to see the same player in competitive games an hour later. Luckily, they were on the opposing team.
Instances like these create ‘fatigue reporting’. Especially those where gamers have “received automated messages and no follow-up” or lack the ability to appeal decisions (Sinpeng et al., 2021, p. 38). For the three men I reported I received no such messages, nor any indication that the case was being investigated at all. How do I know this particularly horrific interaction was even noticed? How do I know if other women are protected in future?
The lack of accountability and transparency fails to foster a sense of trust between victim and developer.
So why should I bother reporting anyone at all?
Ways to improve the system
For us to ensure online video games, particularly competitive spaces, are safer for women to enjoy gaming in, there first needs to be considered changes implemented. It’s difficult to prevent instances of verbal abuse or sexual harassment entirely simply because “hate speech [coexists] with the right to freedom of expression” (Flew, 2021, p. 94). This creates a complicated relationship between expressing oneself and their views and suppressing necessary harms that might otherwise prove to be corrosive to marginalised groups.
How are we to prevent hate speech and sexual harassment in video games without infringing on these rights?
When looking for ways to improve these systems, several considerations need to be made. For example, the definitions of harassment and hate speech or discrimination may differ between video game companies, or the severity of punishments may vary.
To ensure the maximum level of trust is established, sustained and safety of all players maintained, I suggest using solutions from Sinpeng et al. (2021) as a foundational system for improvement.
- – Provide players with the definitions of each category of reportable offenses. This should include examples as well.
- – Ensure the processes of punishment (including the length of time and severity of punishments) are transparent to players before incidents occur.
- – Introduce appeal processes for both the reported players or those doing the reporting. Both processes should be detailed for either party.
- – Allow players to appeal their punishments or reviews that find unsuccessful results when making reports. Escalation in some cases should be available when needed.
- – Provide communication to reporting players and reported players when appeals have been made and what their results may be.
- – Suggest avenues for additional, localised support in instances of particularly harmful abuse. A national website, number, or organisation relevant to the player’s general country would be ideal.
- – Incentivise players to file reports. For those who make successful reports, provide players with an in-game currency or similar reward to ensure the community is encouraged to maintain a safe and fair environment for all.
Some games implement a few of these suggestions, whereas others have only done so halfway. Either way, I know that as a female online gamer myself, I would greatly appreciate having better avenues for ensuring my favourite hobby remains an enjoyable one.
References
Flew, T. (2021). Hate speech and online abuse. In Regulating platforms (pp. 91–96). Polity.
Sinpeng, A., Martin, F., Gelber, K., & Shields, K. (2021, July 5). Facebook: Regulating hate speech in the Asia Pacific. Department of Media and Communication, University of Sydney & School of Political Science and International Studies, University of Queensland. https://r2pasiapacific.org/files/7099/2021_Facebook_hate_speech_Asia_report.pdf
Saskiiii. (2026, March 26). Being a gamer girl is tough sometimes.. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/KAs9Vx8jEiU
Zhou, Y., & Peterson, Z. D. (2024). Women’s experiences of sexual harassment in online gaming. Violence Against Women, 31(8). https://doi.org/10.1177/10778012241252021
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