Combating Toxicity, Hate, and Harassment in Online Games: A Workshop at FDG 2023

Call for Participation

Goal

In this workshop, we want to bring together researchers from different backgrounds to build a community,  identify current challenges, imagine potential solutions, and foster collaborations aiming to help combat toxicity, hate, and harassment in online games.

We are planning a hybrid workshop. Because of the interactive nature of the planned activities, we feel that attendees would benefit from in-person attendance. However, due to ongoing travel restrictions due to pandemic and global mobility issues, we will support participation from those unable to travel.

How to Participate?

To participate, please submit a short position statement (max 2 pages in the ACM SIGCONF version of the ACM Primary Template), outlining your interest in the topic.

For submissions, please use this form: Submissions are closed.

The submissions will be reviewed by the organizers, aiming for inclusiveness and accepting all submissions that align with the scope of the workshop.

See Important Dates for deadlines. One participant from each submission must register for the workshop.

For this workshop, the accepted papers will not be part of the proceedings for FDG. Attendees will be required to register for FDG.

Objectives of the Workshop

Our goal for the workshop is to bring together a group of international researchers and practitioners from various domains to exchange knowledge on combating toxicity, hate, and abuse in online games, advancing both research and practice. We want to provide a platform for individual researchers to present their interests and research agendas, identify overlaps and opportunities for collaboration, and allow for sharing of knowledge. We are happy to incorporate a wide variety of topics, and want to support different goals and aims of the participants, including but not limited to:

  • Creating frameworks, taxonomies, and definitions of toxicity in games 
  • Understanding motivations and contextual factors for toxic behaviours in games
  • Synthesizing existing strategies and mechanisms to mitigate toxic behaviors in games
  • Developing and evaluating new technical approaches like prediction methods or interventions to better combat toxicity in games
  • Discuss innovative methods to encourage culture change from the bottom up, such as encouraging more prosocial behavior between game players
  • Identifying the needs of game developers, community figures, and players to fight toxic cultures
  • Articulating mechanisms that can foster conversations and collaboration between academic researchers and industry practitioners to address toxicity, hate, and harassment in online games
  • Educating about the current state and dangers of harmful behaviours