Åsa Mitchell says that 80 percent of European children between the ages of 6-10 play computer games. Statistics show that almost 20 percent of them encounter white power messages.
– That even 20 percent of 6-10 year olds can identify that they have come across white power rhetoric I think is very remarkable.
Young children in Germany were radicalized
The average playing time for children is 13 hours a week. Åsa Mitchell says that the children can encounter the extreme right-wing rhetoric directly in the games via chats, or via popular game-related forums such as the chat service service Discord or the live streaming platform Twitch.
In two cases in Germany, very young children were drawn into the extreme right-wing environment of the gaming world and were recruited to commit acts of violence.
– It is about a lot of propaganda. They draw on typical myths about ethnicities or women, to give them a distorted world view, says Åsa Mitchell.
The tip for adults: read on
Åsa Mitchell says that a good step to take as an adult is to read up and familiarize yourself with the gaming world.
– And ask your children or children close to you. Try to empathize with what they face