More than half of online gamers hit with racist or sexist harassment: Anti-Defamation League

Two-thirds of the people who play video games on the internet find themselves subjected to campaigns of "hate, harassment and discrimination," according to a new study conducted by the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Technology and Society.

The ADL says that it has found that 65 percent of gamers surveyed said they had experienced forms of "severe" harassment such as physical threats and stalking, while 74 percent of gamers experienced some lesser form of online harassment.

What's more, the nature of this harassment had a decidedly racial edge, as 53 percent reported "being targeted based on their race, religion, ability, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or ethnicity."

Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said that online harassment of gamers was a problem that should be taken seriously given the important role video games play in American culture.

"Online hate causes real harm," he said. "Every time someone in an online multiplayer game physically threatens or harasses another player repeatedly because of who they are or what they believe, that experience doesn’t just end for that individual when the game is over."

Read the whole report here.