The head of Europe\u2019s video game rating system, PEGI, has warned against supposed \u201csilver bullet\u201d child protection solutions such as age verification, in an interview with AFP.<\/p>\n
A new set of PEGI (Pan-European Game Information) age ratings, coming into force from June, will take into account factors including in-game purchases, incentives to constantly revisit games or the ability to limit in-game messages from strangers.<\/p>\n
It had taken \u201ca couple of years\u201d for PEGI to work out the new classification, its director general Dirk Bosmans told AFP.<\/p>\n
The games sector has in recent years been the subject of debate, including over allegedly addictive mechanics such as \u201cloot boxes\u201d \u2014 virtual items purchasable for real money that contain a random in-game reward.<\/p>\n
PEGI\u2019s new ratings will not apply to games released before June this year \u2014 even the most widely played titles, such as \u201cFortnite\u201d or \u201cLeague of Legends\u201d.<\/p>\n
In future, \u201cwe will have to work out a plan of attack, an approach to live service games,\u201d Bosmans said, \u201cespecially games that will continually provide new updates\u201d.<\/p>\n
Introduced in 2003, PEGI is the only media age classification system harmonised across European countries, its chief noted \u2014 although Germany has its own ratings.<\/p>\n
As a self-regulatory mechanism by the games industry, its rules are applied by major console makers Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft, as well as by Google on its app store.<\/p>\n
Apple has its own age rating system, while the dominant PC gaming platform Steam \u2014 based in the US \u2014 has not implemented one.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u2018Regulatory pressure\u2019 \u2013<\/p>\n
PEGI has updated its approach in part in response to growing \u201cregulatory pressure\u201d within the European Union, Bosmans said.<\/p>\n
Even as the EU has tightened digital regulation in recent years, member states are taking their own steps \u2014 including a draft law in France barring under-15s from social media, which the government has warned would cover some online games with social aspects, such as \u201cRoblox\u201d.<\/p>\n
If passed, the law will require all users to prove their age from 2027.<\/p>\n
While automated online verification \u201csounds like it\u2019s going to fix everything\u2026 data protection organisations are very concerned\u201d, Bosmans said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe first need to have a really good conversation before we start deciding on where to apply it.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that companies in the sector have welcomed the updated PEGI classifications.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey understand that by making PEGI better and stronger, they are better protected against lack of nuance, quick fixes,\u201d Bosmans said.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Parents needed \u2013<\/p>\n
Bosmans also spoke out against full-on bans of games for children below a certain age \u2014 as mooted by French President Emmanuel Macron last month ahead of an expert inquiry.<\/p>\n
\u201cA ban is not very nuanced. It\u2019s not very proportionate, no matter for what you apply it,\u201d he said, recalling that PEGI was created to avoid just such a scenario in the early 2000s.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s more, in Australia \u2014 where social media has already been banned for under-16s \u2014 \u201cthere is now concern that kids are primarily busy with trying to circumvent the rules, sometimes with the help of their parents,\u201d Bosmans said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can try all kinds of technical or legal methods to enforce PEGI ratings. If in the end parents decide, no, my 13-year-old is going to play this 16 (rated) game, it doesn\u2019t change anything,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThinking that you can do it without the parents is the biggest mistake you can make.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The head of Europe\u2019s video game rating system, PEGI, has warned against supposed \u201csilver bullet\u201d child protection solutions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[85,399,46,100524,125],"class_list":{"0":"post-354636","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-international","10":"tag-israel","11":"tag-mna","12":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354636"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354636\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}