As gaming continues to dominate entertainment for young people, researchers are calling on technology companies to balance safety, neuroscience, and innovation. They warn that while gaming can support brain development and emotional regulation, unregulated digital environments expose children to serious risks, including exploitation, harmful content, and privacy violations.

The debate comes as the UK’s Online Safety Act enters its implementation phase. The law gives Ofcom new powers to hold companies accountable for protecting children from online harms and to fine platforms that fail to meet safety obligations. Services offering gaming and live chat functions will be required to demonstrate age-verification systems, transparent risk assessments, and effective reporting mechanisms.

Dr Eugene Lipov, a neuroscientist and chief medical officer at Stella Mental Health, said understanding the brain’s response to gaming is essential. “My focus has long been on how brain structures such as the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex interact in trauma and stress regulation,” he explained. “In individuals with PTSD, the amygdala is hyperactive while the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex are underactive, meaning the systems responsible for controlling emotional responses are less able to inhibit overactivation of fear and stress circuits.”

Dr Lipov said that certain video games may strengthen those same regions of the brain. “Some research, including my own, shows that video games such as Super Mario and Tetris can increase both the activity and volume of the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex,” he said. “These findings suggest that, when designed responsibly, gaming can promote emotional regulation and potentially reduce PTSD symptoms by strengthening the brain’s inhibitory pathways.”

He warned, however, that this same neuroplastic potential makes child safety in gaming environments particularly urgent. “Children’s brains are still developing, highly impressionable, and responsive to repetitive stimuli,” he said. “Exposure to toxic content, online exploitation, or chronic overstimulation can reinforce maladaptive neural pathways that influence emotional control and impulse regulation.”

Dr Lipov said gaming companies have “both a technical and ethical obligation to build safer digital environments”. This, he explained, requires using artificial intelligence for real-time moderation, introducing strong parental controls and privacy safeguards, and ensuring transparency and accountability when managing reports of abuse or harmful behaviour.

He added that promoting games that stimulate the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex through creativity and problem-solving could support healthier development. “When technology companies collaborate with neuroscientists, cybersecurity experts, and child development specialists, we can design platforms that not only protect children but also enhance cognitive and emotional resilience,” Dr Lipov said.

Experts from child protection and cybersecurity sectors agree that gaming safety requires a multidisciplinary approach. Ofcom has already begun investigating several services suspected of breaching new online safety standards, while campaigners are urging developers to integrate child protection measures from the earliest design stages.