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LET THE GIRLS GAME: Is AI The Answer to Gender-Based Harassment Online? · Mini Scroll

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  Last week I spoke to game studies academics Dr. Melianne
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  Butt and Doctor Lucy Sparrow about the harassment that women,
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  girls, and gender diverse people face online.
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  We specifically explored why video games as a medium became
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  gendered, primarily seen as a male dominated activity, and how
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  this gendering of the medium helped craft the concept of the
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  gamer identity to be the hyper masculine white sis het man.
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  Through this, Doctor Melianne explained how this narrow label
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  of a gamer has led to a culture of gender based harassment in
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  the space, with Gamergate as an extreme example of this.
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  In this week's episode, we analyze the ways in which this
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  harassment manifests for women and gender diverse people online
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  and what Doctor Melianne and Dr. Lucy see as the path forward for
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  combating this culture from Centennial World.
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  Welcome to Let the Girls Game, a podcast miniseries where we
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  explore the history and stories of women in gaming powered by
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  Let's Sing. I'm your host Lauren Meisner,
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  and today is Part 2 of the exploration into the harassment
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  that women, girls and gender diverse people face in the
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  gaming space. For anyone who didn't catch part
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  one of this discussion, go back and listen before you tune in
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  here. It gives a lot of necessary
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  context for our conversation today and for a refresher on my
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  guests. Dr. Melian Butt is a lecturer in
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  Cultural Studies at the University of Melbourne.
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  She is an ethnographer of digital cultures, researching
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  questions of diversity in the cultures and industries of video
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  games and Doctor. Lucy Sparrow is an associate
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  lecturer in the School of Computing and Information
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  Systems at the University of Melbourne.
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  Her research is primarily interdisciplinary, lying at the
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  intersection of human computer interaction, game studies,
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  social sciences and philosophy. Without further ado, here is
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  Part 2. In terms of the harassment that
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  women and girls experience online, do you think that
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  especially in the gaming space, what is the role of labels in
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  that? And can you speak to some of the
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  more, I guess, modern examples of the ways that women and girls
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  are harassed online? I think I'd probably Speaking of
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  vignettes or little stories that we share.
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  I, I often think of how when I was a kid, I would be playing a
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  lot of online games and it was really common in those days to
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  be like, what's your age, sex and location, right?
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  People would just ask that of strangers And I'd always be
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  like, oh, I'm eleven and I'm female, right?
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  And no one would believe me like not at all because they just
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  simply didn't believe that an 11 year old girl would be playing a
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  game with them because they're they're, they're made invisible,
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  right? So like tied into what Molly Ann
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  was saying before, there's this sense that the less that we
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  adopt certain mainstream labels and also the more that we hide
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  who we are online, the less visible that we actually are in
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  these gaming spaces as well. Despite the fact that actually a
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  lot of women and a lot of girls and a lot of gender diverse
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  individuals are very, very present in gaming.
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  What that means is that whenever people do actually reveal their
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  gender in any way, that they can end up facing a lot of online
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  harassment. And we know that that particular
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  cohort actually do face the highest rates of online abuse.
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  And in Australia, those rates are actually higher than the
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  global average as well. And E safety has shown as well
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  that of those who do experience online harassment, like one in
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  four of them are actually going to be fearing for their safety
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  as well. So it's like a really, really
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  serious problem, right? The thing is, a lot of us are
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  really familiar with these online kind of tools, right,
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  where we can block people, we can report people, we can mute
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  people who are harassing us. But actually, while these tools
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  actually do form a really, really important function, they
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  don't always work. For instance, when online
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  harassment is sustained, people will find ways around them and
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  they they create a new account, for instance, right?
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  It's, it's a fairly straightforward thing to do, but
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  online harassment, particularly gender based harassment, can be
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  quite sustained. Furthermore, a lot of these
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  interventions are focusing on punishing or removing people who
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  have done these things and less on actually supporting those
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  people who actually are experiencing this abuse.
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  And that's one of the things that we want to do with AI Ally
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  is shift that focus a little bit and focus on supporting the
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  people who are targets of harassment and empower them in
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  in more ways. So when it comes to AI tech, I
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  mean, there's so much conversation always about how
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  it's going to like take our jobs and it, you know, there's
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  obviously a lot of issues around AI for sure.
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  I manage a team of all Gen. Z women and, you know, they're
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  covering it for a media corporation, you know, covering
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  different topics that might be controversial.
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  And I'm always cognizant of the fact that they don't want to
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  have their byline on an article where they feel, you know,
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  worried about their safety or something like that.
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  I want to make sure that they feel like safe saying that to
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  me, protected by that because you know, with deep fakes and
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  all of that, you never know. So if that being said, how do
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  you, in your research, both of you find that AI might have a
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  positive impact on women in gaming and harassment for women
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  online? Is there?
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  Is there a flip side? Yes.
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  So there, there are definitely a lot of issues around AI and
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  it's, it's, it's one of those technologies that are developing
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  so incredibly rapidly and becoming mainstream in such a
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  rapid way as well that rightfully a lot of people are,
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  you know, worried about its impact and the way it can be
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  used and so on. And these are all things that we
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  do need to be really mindful of. At the same time, AI has a lot
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  of really positive potential in the moderation space with
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  ethical oversight, obviously. So one of the things that it's
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  often quoted as being particularly good for is so when
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  we're talking about harassment online, it can be so sustained
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  and in such at such a high volume that honestly, like there
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  aren't enough people in the world to do that job of
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  moderation. And you need some kind of
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  automation in order to take care of it.
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  Not to mention the fact that it's incredibly, it can be an
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  incredibly emotionally taxing and harmful job in itself to
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  review and moderate toxic and and harmful online content.
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  So having AI there is potentially a really positive
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  thing in that regard. What we're really concerned
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  with, I think with AI Ally is that we're not just creating a
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  tool that will just detect online harm and then punish
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  people or remove people, right? Like that kind of thing is
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  already being developed. There's good reason to develop
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  that kind of technology as well, but we're really kind of trying
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  to shift the focus and make it a bit more empowering.
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  So it's not about taking away people's freedoms or anything
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  like that. Rather it's about supporting and
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  helping people. And that's one of the reasons
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  that throughout our entire process of developing AI Ally,
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  it is about very much about our participants.
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  So we are recruiting right now. We're recruiting girls, young
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  women and gender diverse individuals age 14 to 25 to
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  participate in our survey and to participate in workshops and in
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  user studies, basically throughout the entire life cycle
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  of the development of AI Ally to help inform what it will
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  actually do. So that in the end it's, you
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  know, it's not just us making decisions of what people need.
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  We're actually being informed by what's going on.
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  And I think in that way, you know, we can have a lot better
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  ethical oversight over what's going on and make sure that it's
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  actually good for people. I guess I would just love to
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  hear your perspectives on how would you recommend that women
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  or girls find safe spaces in the gaming industry or just online
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  communities in general, and what do you think these safe spaces
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  look like? Well, currently, as Amanda
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  Curtis, research shows, a lot of women and gender minorities end
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  up having to develop intricate coping strategies.
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  And as Lucy mentioned earlier, a lot of these coping strategies
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  end up hiding women's contributions to gaming, such
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  as, you know, never using headsets, always muting your
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  microphone, maybe using a gender neutral or more masculine avatar
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  and name when you're playing games.
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  And so these unfortunately hide our contributions.
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  Sometimes they also backfire. But also having to develop these
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  intricate coping strategies just to kind of carefully curate and
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  maintain your online environment is exhausting and an unfair
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  burden. So I think there, there is
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  momentum here. And definitely we know how bad
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  it is, right? We, we know that there is an
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  issue and there's more funding, more initiatives, more community
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  groups of support that are coming together now, including
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  research across the government, across the industry, where if
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  we're going to go back to Sweet Baby Inc controversies that I
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  mentioned earlier with the Gamergate 2 point O what
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  happened was that the independent contractor to do
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  kind of script editing the script doctors so they they
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  didn't lose their relationships or contracts with the companies
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  that they were working with. Instead, the companies came to
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  them and offered some advice, right?
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  I feel like, you know, this has happened to us too.
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  We're here for you and kind of actually sharing that.
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  So it's nice to see that there is some shifts and changes and I
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  think AI Ally is a good example of something that we can do
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  about this. So even if the tendency has been
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  to cope individually or find kind of your people or whisper
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  networks, I think it's really common to just play with your
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  friends. We are hoping Aili can make it
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  safer and kind of make it easier for us to just be online, yeah.
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  And on that point as well, if you are 14 to 25, if any
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  listener is 14 to 25 and is a girl, woman or gender diverse
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  individual, please do check out our website, whichisai-ally.org
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  where you can sign up for our survey and potentially
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  participate in a workshop or user studies.
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  You get $100 E gift card if you participate in a workshop at 30,
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  if you participate in a user study.
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  But, you know, importantly, we just really, really want to hear
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  your experiences and, and make sure that your voices are
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  actually heard and, and can inform the development of AI
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  Ally so we can make more of these kinds of safe spaces and
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  make the online world just more of a safe space in itself for
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  for people like us. Yeah.
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  Amazing. Thank.
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  You both so much for joining me. You're just wealths.
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  Of knowledge. In this space and it was so
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  great to hear about the project that you guys are working on.
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  And I will absolutely put a link to AI Ally down below for any
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  listeners that want to participate.
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  Thank you so much to Doctor Melianne and Dr. Lucy for
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  joining me. Thank you to Let's Sing for
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  powering this mini series, and thank you to you for listening
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  to Let the Girls Game TuneIn next week, where I speak with
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  Twitch streamer Foss on the hypersexualization of women in
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  gaming and streaming.