In 2019, Orange became the pioneer in committing to enhance the responsibility of digital technology. This pledge was embedded into the company's brand purpose and bylaws, underlining Orange's role as a trusted partner in fostering a responsible digital world for everyone. The fight against cyberbullying stands at the forefront of this endeavor. The Safe Zone initiative reflects the brand’s ongoing dedication to the cause and aims to achieve three key objectives: - Raise awareness and offer a practical solution to cyberbullying. - Strengthen the brand's appeal to young audiences by positioning itself as a leading player addressing future challenges. - Enhance the perception of Orange as a committed and innovative brand.

Calling for help isn't a reflex for victims in video games, yet most video games feature communication tools like phone booths and mobile phones – which are unfortunately non-functional and serve merely as decorations. The idea is to repurpose these in-game phones into Safe Phones: assets to call for help and talk about harassment. Concretely, when a phone is approached, a pop-up appears prompting the player to pick it up and choose its language. The message puts the playser in contact with psychology experts from their national helpline. To enable mappers to easily include these safety features in their video games, Orange has created a collection of 30 Safe Phones – each designed to suit various video game universes – which are accessible at no cost to game designers via the Unreal Engine 5 asset library: SketchFab.

There's an approximate 1,4 billion gamers in the world. 3 out of 5 gamers are victims of cyberbullying. There is no easy way to seek help within games itself. Instilling the reflex of reaching out for help through a phone empowers victims to take action and seek assistance promptly. And doing so in the game experience makes it more acceptable and compatible with their behavior.

Introducing Safe Phones into games required collaborating closely with those who make the platforms live – the game creators. Convincing them to endorse our cause was crucial given their pivotal role in reaching gamers. In essence, having them include these safety features in their games was necessary serve the largest number of players. To engage the game creators' community, two key initiatives were undertaken: - Orange launched a contest aimed at Fortnite mappers, motivating them to create maps with Safe Phones. Fortnite being the second most played game amongst the 13-17-year-olds. - Detailed step-by-step tutorials were accessible on social networks to make the implementation process easier. To raise awareness on the Safe Phones, Orange partnered with big gaming influencers, like Squeezie (18,8 million followers on Twitch).

Overall, the Safe Zone initiative resulted in more than 6 million contacts with helplines in 8 countries. Safe Phones campaign generated over 1.4 million impressions for our target audience. More than 970,000 unique viewers actively participating on Twitch livestreams. The campaign also reached over 175 000 unique viewers through three associated YouTube videos.