What if the games children love were designed to help them thrive?

This article has been produced in collaboration with our sponsor, UNICEF. The gaming industry has an extraordinary ability to create experiences that capture children’s imaginations and keep them coming back. UNICEF’s Responsible Innovation in Technology for Children (RITEC) initiative helps harness that creativity and expertise to support their well-being. Most parents know all-too-familiar phrases like “just five more minutes” or “let me finish this level” when dinner threatens to go cold on the table. It’s easy to see why. Games give children worlds to explore, challenges to master, things to create, and ways to spend time with friends. Yet the same features that make games engaging, from daily streaks to countdowns and limited-time rewards, can also make it challenging for children to step away. These are all part of the design process. And they point to an important question: given the influence game makers have over the experiences they create, how can they help ensure those experiences are positive for children? Video games can have a positive impact on children – when they’re designed right. They can help children create, connect, experiment, learn, and feel a real sense of achievement. The opportunity lies in building on these strengths, making thoughtful design choices that make the very games children love to play good for them, too. Designing with children’s well-being in mind RITEC is a global initiative led by UNICEF in partnership with the LEGO Foundation, the LEGO Group, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center and Games for Change. Epic Games Drawing on research with nearly 800 children across 18 countries, and input from designers at 35 gaming companies across 15 countries, RITEC has developed a framework for understanding what children’s well-being looks like in digital play, along with practical tools to help game makers put those insights into practice. RITEC starts from a simple idea: games are not inherently good or bad for children. Their effects depend, at least in part, on how they are designed. A difficult level can build confidence as a child tries, fails, and eventually succeeds. Or it can make paying to progress feel like the only realistic option. A leaderboard can spark friendly competition, or make status feel impossible to escape. A reward can celebrate achievement, or create unease about missing out if play stops. Even the moment of leaving a game is shaped by design. Can players save easily and stop when they’re ready? Or are they met with another warning, reward, or unfinished task? No single design choice determines whether a game is good or bad. But together, these choices shape how children experience play, what they learn from it and how it affects their confidence, creativity and relationships. What can children gain from digital play? RITEC’s research identified eight dimensions of well-being that digital play can support: safety and security; diversity, equity and inclusion; autonomy; emotions; competence; relationships; creativity; and identity. What do these look like in a game? Autonomy is having a choice that actually changes something. Competence is finally mastering that difficult move or solving a puzzle on your own. Creativity is building, customizing, telling stories or finding a solution no one expected. As Ethan, 12, Australia, explained after playing one of his favorite games: “I love that you need to be creative and try to figure out a way around things. I guess the game was designed so that everyone plays it differently. There’s no one way to do things.” For Nkosinathi, 11, South Africa, the challenge is part of the value in playing: “It helps me do better, like never give up. And try again, even if it’s hard. Try again until I get it.” Relationships go beyond simply letting players interact. They depend on the kind of connections a game encourages, the way players can support each other, and the behaviors it rewards. Community matters to another 12-year-old participant from Australia: “When someone’s encouraging you, you feel like you can do it. It feels really good[…] That’s what motivates me.” RITEC’s research found that when games reflect children’s interests, needs and desires, they can help them feel more in control, build skills, express themselves, navigate emotions and connect with others. From research to game design Most game developers care about the experiences they create for children, but it’s a whole separate challenge to effectively translate that into everyday design decisions. Through the RITEC-8 framework, the RITEC Design Toolbox provides guidance for developers and leaders to tackle this, with visual resources and an interactive card deck linking game features to different aspects of children’s well-being. Teams can use it to explore an early concept, rethink a reward system or test a social feature. It helps turn broad questions about well-being into specific design considerations: Do players have meaningful choices? Does this challenge build confidence or simply cause frustration? What behaviors does this feature encourage? It also gives everyone involved in making a game a shared language for discussing these decisions, from designers and developers to team leads and executives. And bringing those conversations in early gives teams more room to experiment, make changes and get the experience right. Better for children can mean better for games How does all of this work for the gaming industry? After all, games need to attract players, hold their interest, and generate revenue. Designing with children’s well-being in mind may mean rethinking familiar approaches, balancing competing priorities or looking beyond short-term engagement metrics. Making that shift takes commitment across the business. Designers need the right tools and expertise, but they also need support from product teams, commercial leads and senior decision-makers to put these principles into practice. Image: Mojang/Microsoft There are good reasons to make that investment. Games that deliver rewarding experiences and take children’s well-being seriously can build stronger relationships with players and families. For companies, this can also translate into greater trust, stronger brands and lower safety and reputational risks. But what does designing with children’s well-being in mind actually mean for commercial performance? RITEC’s next phase will work alongside the industry to test the approach in practice and build a stronger evidence base around what works. Its Community of Practice will complement this work, bringing together a global network of practitioners and experts to share experiences, exchange ideas and move the work forward. Making every minute of digital play count The gaming industry has spent decades learning what makes games compelling. Imagine what that expertise could do when children’s well-being is built into the equation. Games children love playing. Experiences that help them thrive. Five more minutes worth making meaningful. Are you a practitioner passionate about building that future? Explore the RITEC Design Toolbox and join the growing Community of Practice to make children’s well-being part of what great game design looks like.