How Lego and Epic Games Aim to Make Online Experiences Safe for Children

Initiatives to protect children on digital platforms have seen recent setbacks, putting more of the onus on parents to police their kids' online experiences. In the U.K., the government plans on removing proposals of its Online Safety Bill that would force Big Tech platforms to remove harmful content. Meanwhile, Twitter's recent job cuts have reportedly decimated its child safety team. So kid-centric brands are stepping up to do their part. ParentGraph, a product developed by tech company SuperAwesome, has just passed 11.3 million sign-ups. The platform, which is owned by gaming giant Epic Games, says it's on a mission to build a safer internet for kids and brands. SuperAwesome works with child-centric brands including Mattel and Bandai Namco, and is now partnering with iconic Danish toy manufacturer Lego. A Closer Look at Lego's Plan for a Kid-Friendly Metaverse "The future of the internet needs to consider young audiences," said SuperAwesome’s founder Dylan Collins. "We have an opportunity, as we begin to see the emergence of the metaverse, to build and think about all of the areas that really haven't been fixed and haven't been addressed in the internet to date.” The sign-up process for ParentGraph. Kids Web Services (KWS), the SuperAwesome platform that supports ParentGraph, has been integrated into Lego ID that allows parents to opt into a network of verified guardians without having to constantly provide verification details each time a child in their household wishes to join one of the brand’s online games. Once the parent is verified, an anonymous hash of the parent’s email is created and stored along with the method of verification-such as their social security number-the timestamp of their verification, the country in which the parent’s device is located and the app or service in connection with which the parent verified. This hashed information is securely stored in the network of verified parents/guardians which is called the “ParentGraph”. Once the parent has joined, they are then able to manage permissions for their child on other experiences that also use KWS without the need for providing further verification information. The only data the company retains is the anonymous hash of the email and permissions needed to power ParentGraph. They are full internet citizens and we need to treat them as such.Dylan Collins, founder, SuperAwesome Additionally, KWS can also be used to manage Parental Controls, like social functionality of the platform, which also requires guardian consent before they can communicate with other users. "It’s really demonstrating that there is a growing awareness and appreciation [among] developers [for] trying to build experiences to support younger audiences, and also to make it easier for parents to get involved in this process," said Collins. Providing the building blocks of online safety Lego is a leading company in developing safe environments for children. It has even co-funded UNICEF’s Responsible Innovation in Technology for Children (RITEC) initiative to ensure a child's well-being is central to digital design. The partnership will see the ParentGraph integrated within the Lego Life platform and its online games, allowing the company to carry through the standards it sets with its physical toys, such as age-appropriateness, as it prepares children and parents for an increasingly digital world. "We want [parents] to feel comfortable and educated and understand what we're doing and why," said Anna Rafferty, vp of consumer engagement at The Lego Group. "And it shouldn't be hard for them to be able to enable their children if they want to, to come into those experiences and get those benefits." Rafferty said attempts to exclude children from experiences for their own protection don’t work as kids find ways to contravene those rules and find themselves in environments not designed for them. Instead, the partnership aims to safely be more inclusive of children and their desire to be online. “They are full internet citizens and we need to treat them as such," said Collins. "So much of the brand ecosystem has been trying to figure this out for years but they’ve just been sidestepping all of this and pretending that kids don’t exist." Shifting digital mindsets of brands Rafferty believes that by including ParentGraph on their digital environments, brands will be able to "empower" and "expand" their audiences. She also says, simply, "it's the right thing to do." Collins believes there's another reason brands should consider ParentGraph: It's free. "We now have the tools and the scale in place to show the world what brands can put in place to do the right thing by kids," he said.