Building the "Iron Man Suit": Why Your Studio’s DIY Moderation is Holding You Back

I recently sat down with Hill Stark from Check Step at the Ukie (Association for UK Interactive Entertainment) offices in London. We were supposed to be walking around the city, but in true London fashion, the rain forced us inside—which was actually perfect, because we got to dive deep into why the world of Trust and Safety is undergoing a massive shift.

Hill is what I’d call a "social worker of the internet". She’s spent years in the trenches of data analytics, literally reading through billions of lines of data to find the patterns of behavior that threaten our communities.

Here’s the reality check: If you’re a studio head thinking you can just "build your own" moderation tools to save a few bucks, you’re likely setting yourself up for a nightmare.

The End of the "DIY" Model Era

The biggest takeaway from my chat with Hill is that the "arms race" to build the best AI models is already over—and the big players won. Instead of hiring a massive data science team to build a proprietary model that takes three months to update, Check Step does something much smarter.

• Complementary, Not Competitive: They don't fight the OpenAIs or Geminis of the world; they leverage them.

• Agility is King: Because they don't carry the headcount burden of a data science team, they can ship new features weekly based on the best tech available right now.

• The 50% Rule: Since they’ve streamlined the tech stack, the cost for a studio to "buy" instead of "build" has dropped by at least 50% in just the last two years.

Beyond "Bad Words": The New Frontier of Detection

We’ve moved past the days of simple profanity filters. We’re now talking about Content Detection—identifying the intent behind the interaction.

• The Keystroke Signal: Hill mentioned a fascinating technique: using keystroke detection to identify adults posing as children. If a "12-year-old" on a Minecraft server is typing at 140 words per minute with perfect syntax, the system flags it immediately.

• Catching the "Jump": Predators often try to move kids off-platform via links. Modern tools are designed to catch these patterns of manipulation—like rapport building—before the conversation even goes dark.

• The Iron Man Suit: I love this metaphor (shoutout to Adam Boyce for the original quote). AI shouldn't replace your moderators; it should be their armor. It filters out the "disgusting things" so your human agents can focus on high-level community strategy without the mental health toll.

Promoting the 90% (The Positive Play Gap)

Most studios spend 100% of their energy on the 10% of users who are toxic. But what about the 90% of your community that is actually helpful and friendly?

Hill and I discussed the power of Positive Play. Imagine a system that doesn't just ban the trolls but actually rewards the players who make your game better. While many studios are hesitant because they don't know the right signals, the ROI is there: safer environments lead to higher player retention and increased revenue.

The Bottom Line for 2026

If your game relies on a community, you are in the Trust and Safety business whether you like it or not. The goal for this year is "Execution that Scales". Don't let a "DIY" ego get in the way of a safe, thriving, and profitable player base.