Christchurch Call Foundation launches first-of-a kind gaming safety tools in the UK, with rollout to Canada, Kenya and Jordan to follow
New free e-learning resources — Level Up Safely! and Digital Bystanders — equip parents, educators and community moderators to recognise and respond to the growing convergence of online misogyny, gender-based violence and violent extremism in gaming spaces.
The Christchurch Call Foundation has launched two free online learning tools designed to help parents, educators, community moderators and trust and safety practitioners navigate one of the most urgent frontiers in online safety: the intersection of online misogyny, technology-facilitated gender-based violence, and violent extremism in gaming and gaming-adjacent communities.
Delivered through the Christchurch Call Foundation’s Catalyst programme, the two resources — Level Up Safely! and the Digital Bystanders — are now live for UK audiences. Localised editions for Canada (English and French), Kenya (Swahili) and Jordan (Arabic) will follow in the coming months. The launch represents one of the few programmes globally that directly addresses the documented links between violent misogyny online and pathways into violent extremism — treating them not as separate harms, but as an interconnected threat.
“The Christchurch Call was founded on a simple commitment: that no family should ever again experience what happened in Christchurch because platforms, governments, and civil society failed to act together. Gaming matters deeply. While games themselves do not cause violence, they are now among the most important environments in which young people shape their worldview. They can be inspiring, creative, and collaborative spaces for belonging and friendship. They can also be portals to more sinister, violent experiences. Honouring the commitment we made in 2019 means reaching young people, their caregivers, and the moderators who sustain these communities where they actually are. Our Catalyst programme is built to do just that.” — Paul Ash, Chief Executive, Christchurch Call Foundation
A Gap in Protection, Met with Practical Tools
Gaming has become the largest entertainment sector, eclipsing film, TV, and music to be worth nearly $200 billion annually. Nearly three billion people and some 80% of children with access to devices play video games across the world. Many games and the platforms around them are interconnected social worlds - players find connection, joy, and purpose through their gaming communities. Coupled with the storytelling power of games and the rich media around them, they are now important and influential spaces for youth development. With that power comes potential risk of manipulation by bad actors. Three-in-four younger folks experience harassment in online multiplayer games, while around a third are exposed to violent extremism and a quarter report being approached to join an extremist group.
At the same time, in gaming communities long-standing intolerance and abuse of women and minorities — who now constitute over 50% of players globally — means that toxicity has become mainstream and manifests offline. Men and boys who support violence against women are up to three times more likely to support violent extremism. Since 2019, 35 attacks that shared a connection with gaming led to over 173 deaths and 380+people injured.
“Online gaming spaces are incredibly powerful, which is why children and adults alike spend so much time in them. Yet they receive too much abuse and far too little safeguarding support,” said Galen Lamphere-Englund, who leads the Catalyst programme at the Christchurch Call Foundation. “Community moderators and caregivers are almost always the first to notice when something is going wrong in their community or children' s lives— but they have consistently told us they lack knowledge of harms and practical tools. That’s why we built Level Up Safely! and Digital Bystanders to help.”
What Launches This Week
Level Up Safely! is a self-paced online course for parents, guardians, educators, social workers and other caring adults supporting children and young people in gaming communities. Structured across five interactive modules — from understanding the gaming ecosystem to building communities of care — it offers practical intervention tools, conversation guides, play along suggestions for parents and clear pathways for escalation and support. The UK edition is aligned with UK safeguarding frameworks and referral resources.
Educators can use Level Up Safely to build their understanding about online harms and access conversation templates, classroom discussion guidelines, and advice on school climate policies. Webinars for schools, parent-teacher associations, and other stakeholders are available on request, with additional school-based resources being developed for future release.
Digital Bystanders is a community moderator training platform that supports online community moderators and trust and safety practitioners in preventing and responding to emerging harmful behaviours and hybrid harms in digital communities. The first of its kind to adjust bystander interventions models from university and workplace settings to online communities, it is broadly applicable to a range of frontline needs. With a particular focus on online gender-based violence, the course equips moderators with a bystander intervention framework for recognising behavioural escalation and responding proportionately.
Both resources are free to access and released under Creative Commons licences, allowing partner organisations to adapt and redistribute the materials. They are hosted on CCF's e-learning platform and integrate access to Find A Helpline for users who need immediate support.
“Parents, guardians, teachers, and other caregivers face an unprecedented challenge in keeping young people safe — both offline and online,” said Emily Thompson, who leads curriculum design on the programme. “We built a resource hub to empower adults and young people with knowledge, strategies, and resources to build resilience and confidence in navigating online harms, including exposure to violent extremism, in gaming spaces. Whether a parent is worried about what their child encountered during a gaming session, or a teacher is dealing with a classroom incident, we are providing them with the practical tools to start.”
The UK edition of Level Up Safely! has been developed with UK government stakeholders, including the Department for Education, reflecting the programme's alignment with existing UK priorities on online safety, safeguarding and the prevention of violent extremism.
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Notes to editors
- Access. Both courses are free to access and will be available from 30 April 2026 at christchurchcall.org/learn. A free Moodle account is required to track progress.
- About the Christchurch Call Foundation. The Christchurch Call Foundation is the independent nonprofit that serves as the operational engine for the Christchurch Call—the 2019 global commitment by governments and major technology platforms, supported by civil society and multilateral partners, to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content (TVEC) online.
- About the Christchurch Call Foundation’s Catalyst programme: Catalyst is a large-scale consortium initiative led by the Christchurch Call Foundation, delivered in partnership with the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), Search for Common Ground, Meedan, and the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab (PERIL), with academic collaboration from the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford, the Hertie School, and the VoxPol Institute.