Moreover, it is an industry that attracts many young individuals and, in some cases, these young athletes can be drawn by “esport academies”, which are either independent entities or affiliated with private companies/schools that claim to provide the equipment, training and competitions required to succeed. This, combined with the relatively unregulated and open-natured rapid growth of the esports industry leaves children exposed to cyberbullying, online predators, sextortion, inappropriate content, and more.

Our research is extremely important as the relative newness of the industry means that oversight is disjointed or non-existent in some instances, leaving gaps for exploitation to occur. Through this collaborative initiative between Mission89 and a team of student reearchers from the Graduate Institute Geneva, the research will aim to analyse in-depth the governance of esports structures to compare them to the traditional sports industry.

Esports is slowly being professionalised over the years, and as the industry is still establishing itself and getting the governance structures in place, loopholes in the protection of online gamers have the potential to appear. While the governance structures of traditional sports have not been able to eradicate the exploitation and trafficking of young athletes, they have been able to put policies and regulatory frameworks in place to address claims of the exploitation of amateur and professional athletes.

‘This Applied Research Project, in collaboration with Mission89, is at the forefront of research on sports and human trafficking. The research outputs the team will produce will certainly be crucial and pioneering resources for the protection of children in esports environments!’ Juliana, Graduate Institute of Geneva.

The research aims to draw inspiration from the field of traditional sports to understand the diverse risks associated with specific groups of individuals within the esports community, particularly women, children, minorities and those from the Global South. The research will explore the existing protection regulatory frameworks and mechanisms against child trafficking and their applicability to the online gaming industry and which safeguarding measures have been put in place by stakeholders in the esports industry to protect and/or address the exploitation and human trafficking of esports athletes, particularly those under the age of 18.

With the aim of proposing a set of transnational policies and/or procedures and regulatory frameworks to ensure that the general governance frameworks implemented serve their purpose as a safeguarding instrument for all children in the industry, the research will aim to understand who would be tasked with implementing these safety measures in the field of esports and which gaming and/or sports bodies would have oversight of the online gaming regulatory frameworks. The research will take on an intersectional approach to explore the multifaceted arena of the online gaming industry.

‘Esports are fast becoming a dominant feature in our society attracting a younger generation. Young people participate in esports to communicate, compete and be part of a community. The regulation of the industry both in terms of self-regulation and government regulation remains at an early stage of development, and this presents a concern to the safety of children online. Therefore, this research will form the basis of a guiding tool and resource to support organizations in combating child exploitation in the online gaming industry’.

As the project progresses, the team would appreciate anyone who feels that they could contribute to the research to contact them at  ea@mission89.org . We are extremely excited about our potential collaboration and contribution to this upcoming field of research.

The post Mission 89 x Graduate Institute Geneva: Exploring the risks of human trafficking and exploitation of children in the gaming industry appeared first on Mission89.

Globally, one in every three victims detected is a child. Countries in West Africa, South Asia, Central America, and the Caribbean, present a much higher share of children among total victims detected. The detection of children accounts for a significantly higher proportion in developing countries. Wealthier countries tend to detect more adults than children among trafficking victims.

Main types of exploitation

Forced labor

According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), the African continent records the largest prevalence of children (between 5 and 17 years of age) in labour. The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) estimates confirm this geographical pattern. Some countries in West Africa are estimated to have more than 40 per cent of the total population aged between 5 and 17, engaged in child labor.

Types of forced labor include debt bondage, domestic servitude, forced child labor, and unlawful recruitment and use of child soldiers. The International Labor Organization estimates that 16 million victims of forced labor work in the private sector, and 4 million are in state sanctioned forced labor.

Sex Trafficking 

Sex trafficking refers to when an individual is transported from one location to another for the purpose of commercial sex, either by act of force, fraud, or coercion. If the individual is under the age of eighteen, any commercial sex act is considered trafficking even if there is no force, fraud, or coercion. 

Child victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation (mainly girls) are identified in every part of the world, but largely concentrated in Central America and the Caribbean and East Asia. According to the ILO, 4.8 million individuals are exploited for sex, 3.8 million adults and 1 million children. Women and children are the most common victims found to be trafficked for sex, but men and boys are also trafficked for sex.

Trafficking in sports

Sporting activities have proven to be very susceptible to the sale and exploitation of persons, especially children. Young athletes, especially footballers from Africa and other developing parts of the world seeking economic emancipation through sports, are often victims of rogue agents who connive with certain other elements, to make promises of greener pastures and potentially explosive careers to these young athletes who dream of having careers like their role models. 

Oftentimes, entire families have been known to contribute funding to facilitate such movements, believing that this way, they help one person succeed as a means of helping the entire family in the long run, when the young athlete becomes successful and in a capacity to send down money earned in stronger currency forms.  

In truth however, these mostly child athletes are sold to clubs in developed or perceivably developed nations  for profit. These young players pay these agents or intermediaries purporting to have contacts with professional clubs abroad, to obtain a contract or the opportunity to trial with a club, in arrangements that involve degrees of exploitation that only become clear to the victim upon arrival, far away from family and familiar surroundings, and subject to the terms of slavish contracts and arrangements. 

This has been described as a new form of child slavery that leaves players in a precarious legal position. While there is a growing body of literature on trafficking in sports, there is still a sufficient lack of data on this problem. However, it remains true that the chase for opportunities from a position of economic vulnerability, remains the major reason for sports trafficking to thrive despite efforts to combat the scourge, as victims continue to surge towards these agents in the hopes of breakthrough, oftentimes, even despite advice to the contrary. 

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