🎮 Gaming can be a place of friendship and belonging - but for women and girls, it can also be a space where misogyny, harassment and abuse thrive. 🕹️In the fourth episode of Level Up Safely, Galen Lamphere-Englund and Phillippa Guillou explore how misogyny spreads through gaming communities, how some young people may be drawn into harmful ideas about women, and how these beliefs can intersect with other forms of hate and violent extremism. They look at the rise of trends like looksmaxxing and the harmful impacts they have on men and boys, how seemingly harmless content can lead young people towards more extreme online communities, and why girls and women may feel pressured to change how they behave to feel safer while gaming. You'll also hear from leading experts about the role gaming can play in building positive communities for boys and young men and the important work community moderators do to create digital spaces where everyone feels welcome. This episode’s guests are: Emily Thompson - Digital extremism researcher and Principal Strategic Advisor, the Christchurch Call Foundation Dr Cynthia Miller-Idriss - founding Director and Chief Vision Officer in the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab, at American University and Author of the book Man Up: The New Misogyny and the Rise of Violent Extremism. Caroline Hayes - Senior Technical Specialist on Digital Strategies at Equimundo RESOURCES Check out our free Level Up Safely e-learning course: 🌐christchurchcall.org/learn If you or someone you know needs support, you can find free mental health helplines in your country here: 🌐 findahelpline.com If you're in the UK and are concerned that someone you know may be vulnerable to radicalisation, contact ACT Early for free advice and support: 🌐 actearly.uk 📞 0800 011 3764 If you’re in Canada, visit the Canada Centre for Community Engagement and Prevention of Violence: 🌐 publicsafety.gc.ca About your hosts: Galen Lamphere-Englund leads the Christchurch Call Foundation’s Catalyst consortium dedicated to improving online safety and preventing harms at the intersection of misogyny and violent extremism. Phillippa Guillou is an award-winning journalist and podcast producer and co-founder of OG Podcasts. Connect with Galen: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/galenenglund Email: catalyst@christchurchcall.org Connect with Phillippa: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phillippa-guillou Email: philly@ogpodcasts.co.uk Support for Girls and Women in Online & Gaming Spaces Pirth.org is working to make online safety accessible for everyone. Pirth.org provides resources and support for any sort of online violence, including cyberbullying, doxing, exploitation, harassment, image-based abuse, physical threats, and more. Users create an account, report their experience, and receive a curated personal action plan for free. Anyone can use their services. Consumer Reports offers a free security planning tool, providing customised recommendations based on their security concerns. Areas of focus include online harassment and stalking, keeping social media profiles private, and general best practices for cybersecurity. PEN America's Online Harassment Field Manual is a free guide created with, and for, those disproportionately impacted by online abuse. Witnesses, targets, and anyone active online, will find useful tools and resources here for navigating online abuse and tightening digital safety. https://lila.help/ - Lila Help is a multilingual directory that shares contact information for gender-based violence helplines and non-governmental organizations for nearly every country in the world. https://learn.canadianwomen.org/courses/reclaim-your-digital-space-help-end-gender-based-digital-harm - This free course from the Canadian Women's Foundation helps participants build their media literacy skills, focusing on digital harms including harassment, online hate, and abuse.
