Where gamers have been proactively interacting with each other over 30 years, civil society, governments and the industry has just started waking up to the need to find solutions to the rampant abuse in the gaming community.
As per a research done by ADL "Nearly three quarters (74%) of online multiplayer gamers have experienced some form of harassment in online multiplayer games."
It's a scary scenario. Looking from the Indian perspective, we do not have a national policy about Gaming. Our age categorization of a game is based on US or Europe standards (Depending upon the game manufacturer). And from my experiences in the Police Stations and Cyber Crime cells I can confidently say they would be clueless if one tried to explain any of the above mentioned crimes.
At present we have about 500 million games across India, and there is not a single awareness campaign regarding how to indulge in Gaming in a Safe and Secure manner. What are the do’s and don'ts? Where shall one go in case of abuse? Harassment? Addiction?.
With schools, parents, offices clueless, the gamers are left in a very helpless space when things go negative. There is a random panel or two on media shows about gamers safety, but that's just a drop in the ocean of requirement when it comes to raising awareness in the gaming world!