Original post can be
found here. Posted by Mod_Stevew
Hi everyone,Steve here! I can see that there's a number of conversations happening around how we deal with certain behavior in RuneScape, and I wanted to try and shine a light onto how we go about tackling inappropriate language.
To help position things for you (and introduce myself to those who haven't seen me before), I have been with Jagex for almost 11 years & head up the community safety team as Player Support Manager. The majority of those 11 years have been spent working on our community safety approach, including attending and presenting at conferences within the industry and building relationships with enforcement agencies to continually improve the way we keep people safe online. I’m also a Father of 2 kids, and I am incredibly passionate about keeping players safe & challenging toxic behaviour. I’ve personally been involved in serious issues relating to online safety and I take a genuine interest in every escalation anyone in my team makes.
In relation to the original topic that has triggered debate, I looked at the original evidence towards the end of the working day last Friday. My initial reaction was that the very short text provided (19 words) was, essentially, someone saying they had another players details. They don’t quote those details and they don’t directly specify that they intend to use them illegally or to cause distress. I can of course 'read between the lines' but also have to judge every situation with fairness and consistency - and be careful that I don't jump to any conclusions based off of cropped & redacted images.
My immediate concern was to offer advice that would ensure the OP gets the correct real world support he needs and that the perpetrators are investigated by the Police – so that if they did intend to use the information they claimed they had illegally they could be apprehended and stopped before doing any real world harm. That is why my advice focused on the OP contacting law enforcement, and it is why I offered assurance that we would work with them (the Police) to provide chat logs etc if it would help. I did also say that these sort of issues can be reported to us, but any action we take will be limited to a game account – and the root cause and principal risk of real world concern needed to addressed as the priority. I did this from a sense of genuine concern for the player - and I didn't mean for it to come across as though Jagex weren't interested in getting involved or investigating the accounts involved - as we absolutely will do that.
From my experience, it is also likely that there is further context that the OP could provide to the Police such as chat logs from other platforms, or details about how the information may have been obtained etc. In relation to whether we take any action against the game account based on the evidence provided, we need need to take a balanced view that ensures genuine threats are dealt with but also doesn’t mean that any player who simply implies they know something about another player ends up with a mute or ban. I haven't personally reviewed the chat logs involved in this case, but we of course need to make sure we aren't punishing players for chat which doesn't present a risk or harm to the community or individual players.
In the quick assessment I made from the initial chat image, I personally felt the threat was quite veiled and had similarities with the sort of thing that players may say to each other in high friction situations, or for 'shock value' (based on experience) and my assessment was that the OP should seek Police intervention if they felt genuinely threatened, as that is the only action that would tackle the root cause, verify the threat and ultimately prevent any real world harm, should the person who claims to have the information turn out to be genuine and intent on causing harm. Please note that this was just my initial assessment based on 19 words of cropped chat log - additional context and content will of course help me build a bigger picture of the case. The member of staff reviewing the abuse report will take time to fully investigate the incident & take appropriate action.
We will continue to tackle toxic behaviour in our games, and we welcome your feedback on changes you would like to see moving forwards – our ultimate aim is to have a safe and fun gaming environment for everyone.
As I stated in my original comments, any player who feels victimised / harassed or abused should report the incident to us, if we determine that the risk is such that we need to involve the Police or an enforcement agency we will, and if the report contains sufficient contextual evidence we will also take action against the game account. That said we also need people to approach these situations exactly as they would in real life, and if they have been the victim of a crime they need to make that known to their local law enforcement.
Please know that we are on your side. There is no reason why we wouldn't take action against an account which poses a threat to the community, and if the player has been reported, then our teams will assess the content & context of the evidence, and take action which is both proportionate and appropriate. A cropped chat log on reddit which is anonymous means I'm limited in terms of absolutely confirming what action we would take, but what I can say for certain is that we won't & don't tolerate seriously abusive or threatening behaviour.
I hope this has helped clarify our position and reassures you all that your safety and security is of paramount of importance to us.
Mod Infinity & I will be around this evening to help answer any questions or respond to comments you guys have.
Cheers,
Mod Stevew