Safety is [REDACTED]

By Matthew SoethBusiness Technology Education How To Careers

Safety is [REDACTED] episodes

August 06 Safety Is [Redacted] with Rachel Kowert | Side Quests: Games for Change, Frameworks & the Fight for Physical Media
What does a healthy gaming community actually look like, and can you measure it?

In the first episode of Side Quests, our recurring gaming series, I sit down with Rachel Kowert fresh off Games for Change in New York. We dig into what's moving in gaming right now: community health frameworks, the slow death of physical media, industry layoffs hitting safety and accessibility teams, and why the future of games is social.

We also get into Rachel's framework era (EFFECT, reporting categories, and the CHEER model for measuring community health), what actually makes a code of conduct work, and a preview of the Digital Thriving Summit in Helsinki.

0:00 Cold open
2:30 Games for Change recap
6:00 Raising Good Gamers and the parent white paper
13:50 Rachel's framework era: AFFECT, reporting categories, CHEER
19:20 The CHEER model explained
26:00 The end of physical media
32:00 Industry layoffs and safety teams
34:30 AI and the future of work in games
36:30 Helsinki Digital Thriving Summit
37:50 Rachel's DLC Leadership Program

Links:
Raising Good Gamers: raisinggoodgamers.org
DLC Leadership Program: https://dlcleadership.org/
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43 min
July 16 Transparency Is More Than a Blog Post with Cassie Coccaro
Cassie Coccaro, head of communications at Thorn, joins Matt to unpack why "we take safety seriously" isn't transparency, how to spot performative safety PR, and how to tell trust and safety stories without making practitioners the target. The best safety work is invisible: the harm that never happened, the content you never saw. Cassie and Matt dig into how platforms can prove a negative, what a genuinely good transparency report looks like, and why suspiciously timed safety announcements are a red flag. Plus, lessons from TikTok's earliest transparency reports and why brand safety might be the business case that finally gets trust and safety the resources it deserves.
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32 min
May 06 Building the Safest Place to Stream, with Christine Weber, CTO, Twitch
This week, I sit down with Christine Weber, CTO of Twitch, to talk about what it takes to build safety at scale for live streaming. Christine walks through how Twitch approaches moderation across millions of live streams every month, the creator-first tools like Shield Mode and AutoMod that put real control in streamers' hands, and why Twitch has deliberately kept humans in the loop with AI. She also gets into how creator feedback shapes the product, how Twitch thinks about regulation as a starting point rather than a finish line, and what it means to plant a flag and say you're building the safest place to stream on the internet.
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37 min
April 14 Safety, Thriving, and the Future of Gaming with Rob Lewington
This week I am joined by Rob Lewington, SVP of Trust and Safety at TP. We dig into what it actually means for players to thrive in games, why safety is a prerequisite and not a tradeoff, and how the structural design advantages of games give builders more room to shape healthy communities than purely social platforms ever could. They also dig into how to measure community health beyond operational inputs, what it looks like to recognize companies doing innovative safety work, and why building that kind of industry infrastructure matters for the field's long-term growth.
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41 min
February 26 Won't You Be My Partner? Hill Stark, Checkstep
Should you build your trust & safety stack in-house or partner with a provider? Matt and Hill Stark break down how to make the call—covering partner fit, testing with your own data, policy-specific moderation, and the real cost of building and maintaining a safety program internally.

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29 min
February 10 Safety Through Thriving With Savannah Badalich, Discord
Our next episode features Savannah Badalich of Discord, who dives into the power of gaming, her history with games, and how to build safety through thriving. In time for Safer Internet Day, this week Discord has announced that teen-by-default and age assurance is rolling out globally on the platform as another way to help make Discord a safe place for users.

Read More about Discord’s Global Teen-By-Default Settings
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42 min
December 16, 2025 Digital Parenting in the Roblox Era with Dr. Elizabeth Milovidov
Dr. Elizabeth Milovidov, Global Head of Parent Advocacy at Roblox and longtime digital parenting expert, unpacks what it means to raise kids in a gaming-first and online world. Dr. Milovidov dives into why conversations matter more than controls and how to use behavior (not just minutes) to gauge whether screen time is healthy. Further, she shares practical ways to co-play games like Roblox and Minecraft, tips to choose age-appropriate content, how to spot red flags without panicking, and methods to turn safety tools and settings into part of a shared family plan so you can feel less like a tech cop and more like the trusted adult your child needs.
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35 min
October 24, 2025 Prosocial Behavior & Digital Thriving with Weszt Hart
Welcome to our first live recording of the 'Safety is Sexy' podcast. This week I am joined by Weszt Hart, Head of Player Dynamics at Riot Games, to discuss prosocial behavior in online gaming. Weszt shares insights from his extensive experience emphasizing the importance of creating game environments that encourage building trust and fostering positive player interactions. We delve into the definition of prosocial behavior emphasizing actions that benefit others, whether intentional or not. We include practical examples from various games, strategies for fostering trust, and the broader goal of digital thriving.
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1 hr 2 min
July 14, 2025 Getting ready for Trustcon 2025 with Alice Hunsberger
Safety is Sexy is back with a special TrustCon 2025 episode! This week Matt sits down with the insightful Alice Hunsberger to dive into what makes TrustCon such a meaningful gathering for the trust and safety community. From practical conference tips and awkward networking moments to fashion debates and session previews, Matt and Alice bring warmth, humor, and wisdom as they gear up for another inspiring year. Whether you're a first-time attendee or a seasoned pro, this episode is your optimistic guide to making the most of TrustCon 2025.
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42 min
April 23, 2025 The Intersection of Cybersecurity and Trust & Safety with Joel Silk
In this episode of Safety is Sexy I speak with Joel Silk, a former Air Force intelligence officer with extensive experience in cybersecurity and trust and safety. Joel discusses his transition from military intelligence to cybersecurity and then to trust and safety. We discuss: The importance of protecting users and systems, how collaboration between cybersecurity and trust and safety teams can significantly improve user confidence and platform integrity, the impact of emerging technologies like AI, blockchain, and quantum computing, and how they can shape practices in both fields, and we also discuss practices for incident response and communication particularly in light of recent cybersecurity breaches affecting telecommunications.
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39 min