Kids deserve the same guarantee online that toys on a shelf already carry: safety engineered in before launch, not patched after a child gets groomed or radicalized. Gaming giants have proven that voluntary goodwill produces wildly uneven protection, with some refusing even basic detection tools or intelligence sharing. Regulatory muscle works, and it needs to keep squeezing until safety stops being an afterthought.
Gaming platforms already ban grooming, sextortion, exploitation material and predatory contact with minors, with real enforcement ranging from feature lockouts to permanent bans and referrals to child protection authorities. Detailed rules on payments, trading, random-item odds and age-gated features show self-governance that adapts faster than any regulator's checklist. Player reporting and parental controls keep that system honest.
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