One in 10 female gamers has suicidal thoughts after being abused while gambling online, a survey finds | British News

One in ten women have suicidal thoughts because of being abused while gambling.

New research for Sky Broadband shows that of the 4,000 female gamers surveyed, 49% have experienced abuse or harassment while playing or streaming online – compared to 75% of 18-24 year olds.

The level of harassment is so severe that 25% of women surveyed said they felt depressed, 40% felt personally threatened by the abuse they had experienced online, and 27% feared being attacked in real life after being threatened on gaming platforms to become.

Renata Miranda Antelo plays every day and told Sky News the toxic culture is relentless.

“I think one of the most annoying things is when they ask you where you live, where you’re from, what’s your Instagram, how old you are and if you want to visit them in their home countries,” she said.

“And it’s just a constant cycle of What’s your Instagram? what is your instagram And sometimes you don’t want to say anything back, so you just don’t say anything at all, which I hear a lot from people — they’re like, ‘Oh, just mute them or just don’t say anything back’.”

“But it goes further and it gets to the point where they then start swearing at you and saying swearing at you because they’re not getting the reaction they want from you.”

Steffy Evans is a streamer who uses TikTok to highlight the misogyny she faces online by posting videos of men swearing at and threatening her.

She says she hopes to help others by exposing the reality women face when it comes to gambling.

“What I’m doing with all of this is to shed some light and encourage and boost the confidence of the women to keep playing the game, keeping their mics on and even talking to these guys,” Ms Evans told Sky News .

“Obviously if I could tackle it on a larger scale, that would be a permanent ban or real life consequences.”

“But there’s only so much I can do that is shed some light on what’s happening in the game [encouraging other women to] Keep your confidence and speak up.”

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Also active is Guild – an esports team supported by David Beckham – competing against other teams online.

An immersive campaign was launched to highlight the abuse faced by female gamers.

“The reality is, if that were to happen on a soccer field, there would be a referee who would literally blow the whistle and send someone off,” explained Jasmine Skee, CEO of Guild Esports.

“We cannot watch these numbers continue to occur and these women continue to have this experience.”

“This is about taking care of their mental health and making sure women feel like they can play and do what they love and that they feel very involved in it.”

Gaming is big business, expected to be worth more than £279 billion by 2026.

But as the industry continues to grow, it appears that progress is much slower and real change is needed before it remains a man’s world.