The Children’s Commissioner has called for tighter rules to protect children from racking up excessive bills
Anne Longfield, the Children’s Commissioner for England, has made a number of recommendations in a report exploring children’s experience of playing games on the internet, including preventing developers from making games in which children have to spend money to progress and limiting spending to items which are not linked to their performance.
Maximum daily spending limits in all games which support in-game spending should be turned on by default for children, and online games should be subject to the same legally-enforceable age-rating system physical games are, the report suggested.
How loot boxes work
Loot boxes are virtual crates containing usually unknown items, features or abilities which players are either rewarded or can purchase using in-game or real currency.
While gambling regulators in both Belgium and the Netherlands have found that some loot boxes violate their gambling laws, they remain legal in the UK as there is no official method of monetising their contents, according to watchdog the Gambling Commission.
The Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee (DCMS) called for in-game spending to be regulated by gambling laws and children should be banned from purchasing them as part of its report on immersive and addictive technologies published last month.
The committee argued that if loot boxes were purchased using real money, the game should be marked as containing gambling and age-restricted content and that the government should consider regulating the practice under the Gambling Act 2005.
Around 93 per cent of children aged between 10 and 16-years old play video games, making it “vital that the enjoyment they get comes with tighter rules that protect them from straying into gambling,” Ms Longfield said.
“Playing games online can be rewarding and exciting and help children to develop strategic skills and friendships, but they are also open to exploitation by games companies who play on their need to keep up with friends and to advance to further stages of a game by encouraging children to spend on loot boxes.
Encouraging spending on loot boxes
“Children have told us they worry they are gambling when they buy loot boxes, and it’s clear some children are spending hundreds of pounds chasing their losses. I want the Government to classify loot boxes in games like FIFA as a form of gambling. A maximum daily spend limit for children would also be reassuring for parents and children themselves.”
Parents should speak to children about the importance of balancing their time playing games with other offline activities and take age rating for online titles as seriously as they would film ratings, she added.
England’s first Centre for Internet and Gaming Disorders, which offers support to people aged between 13 and 25-years old experiencing addiction to gaming, the internet, gambling and related issues with social media, opened its doors earlier this month.
