SITUATION

Everyone in the gaming community knows a female gamer who’s been harassed.

But you hardly ever hear of a gamer who’s been punished for harassment.

Sadly, that’s the status quo in most countries.

Including in Brazil, where the e-Police Station was launched.

BRIEF

Wonder Women Tech (WWT) is a global ecosystem dedicated to creating initiatives that truly impact women’s experience in the tech and digital worlds.

That means an experience with diversity, inclusion and equality.

An experience without harassment, gender bias, or exclusion.

The challenge of this project was how to pull that off in the gaming world.

OBJECTIVE

The gaming community already knows about the problem.

There's no reason for yet another awareness campaign.

The objective is clear: we needed a real solution to help women fight back against harassment.

The e-Police Station is the first in-game police station where complaints become real-life police reports.

A mod that connects in-game police stations with real-life ones.

It allows gaming servers to activate a simple in-game interface.

Women are now able to file criminal complaints against their aggressors. All without leaving the game.

It’s as simple, practical and integrated as that.

Virtual harassment has always had real consequences for its victims.

Now, virtual harassment has real consequences for harassers, too.

An initiative with the essence of Wonder Women Tech ("Innovate. Empower. Ignite").

Which empowers women to fight against harassment.

After all, women's rights is not a game.

The strategy is to offer a real solution for female gamers to report in-game harassment without leaving the game.

This was a game-changing tool because it created an unprecedented shortcut from the game to the real-world police.

Without the e-Police Station, victims would have to shut down their gameplay to report harassment - either at a physical police station or on the police's official site.

Now, that’s not the case. Reports can be filed from within the game.

We rolled out the e-Police Station in GTA RP, the biggest online multiplayer game in Brazil, backed up with the voluntary live streams of dozens of streamers. All women.

After the success of the initial roll-out, the e-Police Station code was made open source so that all GTA RP servers could incorporate it by adding it to the server’s base code.

The tool is already being adapted for use in other games.

Part of the power of the e-Police Station is in its simplicity.

Because it’s a minor mod with a major impact.

When added to gaming servers, the e-Police Station creates an innovative connection between the game and the real-world police.

The mod was initially rolled out on a GTA RP server.

In the game, it appears as an interactive tablet inside the game’s police station. You walk up, click on the button, and you’re in contact with the real-world police.

The launch included a film, digital pieces, and live sessions by pro players and streamers, introducing their audiences to the tool.

Then the code was made open source, so multiple servers could use it.

The e-Police Station interface is being adapted to work in other games. It’s easy since we already have the main mechanism.

In other words, the project has no technical limitations to be scaled to countless games.

"A groundbreaking initiative to ensure justice" - IGN

Beyond the sheer numbers, the possibility of filing in-game police reports also means a behavioral sea change. Before, harassers could count on impunity. Now, they might suffer the consequences of their actions. That serves to inhibit aggression.

The e-Police Station also got great tangible results, including approximately 25MM in earned media and 357 real investigations against harassers (and counting).

Moreover, 18-plus servers have already implemented their own e-Police Station. Which means that more women will soon be able to file their own reports.

Another significant result has to do with mentions on social media and streaming platforms. We saw a massive discrepancy between male and female reactions to the project, with around 98% of positive mentions from women and 48% negative mentions from men.

Which only serves to show just how necessary the e-Police Station truly is.