Neogames’ Comments on the EU Kids Act

The Commission has only published its proposal. The Council of the European Union, representing the EU Member States, and the European Parliament are now preparing their respective positions on the proposal. The Commission, Parliament and Council will then negotiate the final form of the legislative package. The process of turning the proposal into final legislation will take years. Neogames’ advocacy work has already started and will continue throughout the legislative process in cooperation with EGDF.

Which games would the regulation cover?

According to the Commission’s draft, the regulation would apply to all games that can be purchased and played digitally, as well as to all game distribution platforms. This means it would not be limited to games featuring potentially harmful content or features for minors. Whether a game requires users to log in to a service would also be irrelevant. Under the Commission’s proposal, the regulation would exclude games available or purchasable exclusively as physical copies without any online connectivity, as well as games intended for educational purposes.

What changes does the Commission propose for games?

Parental control tools: Under the proposal, every game would be required to introduce parental control tools to help parents monitor their children’s gaming. It remains unclear whether it would be sufficient for these tools to be available at the device or platform level, or whether each game would need to provide its own tools. Access to games by children under the age of 13 would be permitted and managed exclusively through these tools. Minors would have to be notified when a guardian changes the settings. Guardians would also need to be able to report incidents related to games, such as issues involving accounts or game content. Furthermore, the draft would make PEGI age ratings binding, as app store providers would not be permitted to allow minors to use or purchase apps deemed unsuitable for their age under the applicable age rating system. The PEGI system is built on the principle that parents have the right to make independent decisions about whether, for example, a 15-and-a-half-year-old is mature enough to play PEGI 16-rated games.

Age assurance: By default, the draft regulation’s requirements would apply to all players and could be relaxed only once the service provider had verified that a player was an adult. A player’s self-declaration alone would not constitute sufficient age assurance. The draft would require operating system developers to provide game developers with an “age signal” based on device-level age assurance, provided that the player consents to this. It remains an open question to what extent game developers could rely on this signal and whether it would be provided free of charge.

Game features: Under the draft regulation, certain features would have to be disabled by default for minors. These include location tracking and other tracking functions, microphone and camera access, recommendations of other gaming accounts as in-game friends, and contact synchronisation. Games would also have to ensure that notifications are not sent during school hours or sleeping hours.

Game mechanics: According to the proposal, games must not be designed, developed or organised in ways that encourage minors to play “compulsively or excessively”. Features considered to fall into this category would include notifications or rewards aimed at encouraging minor players to return to a game. However, PEGI experts have assessed that a proportionate balance between protecting children and safeguarding their right to participate in cultural life could be achieved through age ratings. For example, games featuring daily challenges could receive a PEGI 7 rating, while mechanics that slow a player’s progress unless they play regularly could result in a PEGI 12 rating.

What changes does Neogames intend to propose?

The PEGI co-regulatory system should serve as the starting point

The objectives of protecting minors and supporting parents, guardians and educators are important and welcome. Over more than two decades, the European games industry has developed a functioning PEGI co-regulatory system to protect minors, addressing the concerns raised in the draft regulation.

PEGI includes age ratings and content descriptors that are available to children and their parents or guardians before they make a purchasing decision. It has also established industry-wide codes of conduct that guide game development. These codes include provisions for parental control tools on gaming platforms, for example.

In many respects, the EU Kids Act builds on PEGI and aims to establish long-standing tools and rules as the standard for games made available in the EU. Neogames believes that the role of co-regulation should be further strengthened and that it provides an adequate foundation for achieving these objectives.

Age assurance must be risk-based and is not justified in every context

Games are cultural products. Children’s fundamental right to protection must be balanced against their fundamental cultural rights. Article 31 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child requires States Parties to promote children’s right to participate freely in cultural and artistic life. We have reservations about broad age assurance requirements that apply to all games, as they are not proportionate to the level of risk in every context.

Neogames generally supports having certain features disabled by default, provided that this is done within the framework established by the PEGI co-regulatory system. Neogames believes that parents should be supported in their role so that they can grant their children access to games based on each child’s developmental stage and maturity. This approach balances the games industry’s responsibility to keep its services safe with parents’ role in assessing their child’s individual circumstances. At the same time, it respects the principles of protection, privacy and proportionality.

Age assurance and parental control tools must not be left to game developers alone; they should be implemented at the device and distribution platform levels

Neogames welcomes the Commission’s recognition that age assurance can take place at the device level and that age signals generated through such mechanisms should be available to all applications used on the device.

To ensure that the regulation does not further strengthen the position of operating system providers that already act as gatekeepers in digital markets, this obligation should: 1. Apply to distribution platforms as well. 2. Cover access to parental control tools. 3. Be made available to game developers free of charge.

These obligations must also apply to distribution platforms, as they are key alternative channels through which age assurance and parental control tools are made available to players.

The exemption for educational games should be expanded to include, for example, games created by hobbyists

It is welcome that educational games used in schools (edugames) are excluded from the scope of the regulation. This exemption should be expanded to cover games played in libraries, games used for medical purposes in patient care, and games available in museums. Similarly, non-commercial, not-for-profit games created by individuals as a hobby or as an artistic activity — including games developed at game jams, for example — should be excluded from the scope of the regulation.