different interventions will be appropriate, and the level of support needed from a parent will change over time. The group also provided important feedback on the need to strike a positive tone of empowerment in the resource to avoid putting caregivers off engaging with the content. The overall intervention consisted of a combination of both a practical resource and a supporting communications strategy to try and raise awareness with parents. This was important in highlighting key points from the toolkit and encouraging parents and caregivers to engage with the topic of gaming safety more broadly. For subsequent country-specific iterations, Microsoft has worked with locally relevant policy departments and civil society organizations in Singapore, Japan and South Korea. Collaboration has been critical in the design of the toolkit – it would not have been successful without input from a diverse range of local experts helping to highlight the different challenges that parents and caregivers may be facing, areas of common misunderstanding and priority online safety risks to discuss in a gaming environment. Implementation The launch of the toolkit was accompanied by media campaigns to reach parenting and consumer audiences and raise awareness of the resource (given Microsoft’s annual Global Online Safety Survey results show that teens turn to their parents for help after experiencing online safety risks and that 90% of parents use at least one tool to help monitor their child’s online activities).6 Building awareness of the launch was critical in encouraging knowledge-sharing and supporting its uptake.The Gaming Safety Toolkit itself is structured in three key parts. 1 Introducing the topic of parental controls and explaining why these should be used as part of a broader family conversation around online safety: Here, the toolkit encourages parents and caregivers to have open conversations with their children about gaming and involve them in setting rules and boundaries for their own gaming. It also provides a summary of some of the ways that parental controls can be harnessed to set additional guardrails for children online. 2 Exploring the five key risk areas: These include harmful and age-inappropriate content, bullying and harassment, grooming and unwanted contact, screentime and in-game purchases. This part provides a summary of how these risks may manifest and ways that caregivers can respond. This section also features a mix of resources relevant to the country where the toolkit has been released. For example, in Australia, the toolkit points to relevant resources from Australia’s eSafety Commissioner. 3 Featuring age-specific advice for carers, broken into four age groups (5-8 years; 9-12 years; 13-15 years; and 16 years and over): Within these age groups, the content is broken down into “learn”, which outlines common risks for this age group; “explore”, covering key tools and conversation starters; and “support”, which links to age-appropriate local support resources. These sections also include age-specific case studies illuminating the common risks discussed in the first part of the toolkit. While some of the tools discussed in the resource are specific to Xbox, the tips are generally applicable to most online services. 90% of parents use at least one tool to help monitor their child’s online activities. The Intervention Journey: A Roadmap to Effective Digital Safety Measures 15

The Intervention Journey A Roadmap to Effective Digital Safety Measures 2025