Online Safety ALERT: Gacha Heat - Ineqe Safeguarding Group

Last Updated on 6th October 2021

Online Safety Alert

Our online safety experts have been alerted to the concept of ‘Gacha Heat’ videos using the characters and backgrounds from the popular roleplaying game Gacha Life. These videos contain characters and backgrounds made on Gacha Studio which is part of their suite of apps.

The ‘Gacha Heat’ videos can seem ‘innocent’ but can contain inappropriate and offensive content or storylines that extend beyond typical Gacha Life gameplay such as sexual violence, fetish/kink/BDSM, incest and teacher/student or other age-inappropriate relationships.

Our online safety experts found high volumes of ‘Gacha Heat’ content on YouTube and TikTok.

It’s important to note that ‘Gacha Heat’ content is NOT typically found within Gacha Life gameplay on the app but is generated by a group of users and uploaded onto other platforms to which children and young people may be exposed to.

What is Gacha Life?

Gacha Life is a roleplaying and story board creation game. Users can create storyboard scenes, add text bubbles, props, and backgrounds on Gacha Studio. Gacha life has a rating of 9+ on the Apple App Store and ‘E’ for Everyone on Google Play.

What are the risks?

The content in ‘Gacha Heat’ videos presents a risk to children and young people that is not immediately obvious to parents and carers unless they watch the entire video and inspect the narrative.
Themes of ‘Gacha Heat’ videos include racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, child sexual abuse and exploitation, fetish/kink/BDSM/incitement of sexual violence, ‘shock core’, glorification of suicide, terminal illness, incest (parent/child and sibling) and teacher/student relationships.
These themes can normalise abuse and harmful sexual behaviour among children and adults.
‘Gacha Heat’ content has been populating the general #Gacha and #GachaStory hashtags on TikTok which exposes children to the inappropriate content without it being sought out.

Our Top Tips & Advice

Ensure Google SafeSearch is enabled on your child’s devices. It will help filter out any explicit material from initial searches and protect them. Learn how to do this by using our helpful guidance and easy-to-follow steps on Our Safety Centre.
Use our Trusted Adult Resources to teach young people about the importance of seeking help if something worries or upsets them.
Talk to the children and young people in your care about how they can block and report content or behaviour that upsets or worries them. Check out our video.
Use our Online Safety Centre to learn how to enable privacy and safety settings together.
For more information, read our Digital Threat Assessment.
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