A squadron of police officers has been assigned to an interesting task: playing videogames online. Getting paid to play games is a dream many have likely had, but chances are few imagined being a cop while doing it.
Unfortunately, there’s a lot of negativity and even potential crime in onlinemultiplayer games. The anonymity of the internet makes it easy for some to bully others, or worse, making the gaming experience anything but fun. Apparently, that’s where this police group is trying to come in.
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Over in Denmark, a group of police officers have been given the responsibility of gaming online to seek out signs of abuse under the name Police Online Patrol. The cops play popular online games likeFortnite,Minecraft, andCall of Duty: Warzone, looking for signs of hate speech, fraud, and evenchild grooming. The effort began back in April 2022, and has continued since. The police even have customized avatars in some games to indicate that they’re cops, and they regularly stream on Twitch and share clips of what’s going on behind the scenes and some of their gaming victories on video streaming services like TikTok.
While this effort might strike some gamers as silly, the truth is that there are rampant problems surrounding online gaming and streaming.Toxicity in gameshas been studied and reported on many times, with players in some titles experiencing hate speech and harassment on a regular basis. This has extended into swatting on occasion, as well, which has had lethal outcomes in some cases. Unfortunately, there hasn’t been a one-size-fits-all solution to these problems.
That’s not to say that the industry isn’t trying, though. Games are tightening up their speech filters, urging players to report harassers, with games likeOverwatchnotably censoring certain commentsand replacing them with silly or positive ones. Developers and publishers are also researching methods of combating hate in games with AI, but so far, no innovation has resulted in a totally safe environment to game in. Some may see cops monitoring online games as a step too far, but others may see it as potentially beneficial.
While a small police squad obviously can’t monitor everything that goes on in games, some players may appreciate the effort. A few cops playing games with young people isn’t going to change the world, but at least they’re taking the matter seriously. Unfortunately, some cops haven’t been as tech-savvy or aware of the potential threat that online gaming and streaming carries. In one instance, a popular streamer was toldcyber-stalking isn’t a crime, only for her stalker to show up in real life at her home afterward. Online threats and dangers often carry over to the real world. If the Police Online Patrol can stop even one criminal activity from occurring in a game, it’s a step in the right direction.
