The China Mail - No 'silver bullet' for video game age restrictions: PEGI chief

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.

It had taken "a couple of years" for PEGI to work out the new classification, its director general Dirk Bosmans told AFP.

The games sector has in recent years been the subject of debate, including over allegedly addictive mechanics such as "loot boxes" -- virtual items purchasable for real money that contain a random in-game reward.

PEGI's new ratings will not apply to games released before June this year -- even the most widely played titles, such as "Fortnite" or "League of Legends".

In future, "we will have to work out a plan of attack, an approach to live service games," Bosmans said, "especially games that will continually provide new updates".

Introduced in 2003, PEGI is the only media age classification system harmonised across European countries, its chief noted -- although Germany has its own ratings.

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.

Apple has its own age rating system, while the dominant PC gaming platform Steam -- based in the US -- has not implemented one.

- 'Regulatory pressure' -

PEGI has updated its approach in part in response to growing "regulatory pressure" within the European Union, Bosmans said.

Even as the EU has tightened digital regulation in recent years, member states are taking their own steps -- 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 "Roblox".

If passed, the law will require all users to prove their age from 2027.

While automated online verification "sounds like it's going to fix everything... data protection organisations are very concerned", Bosmans said.

"We first need to have a really good conversation before we start deciding on where to apply it."

He added that companies in the sector have welcomed the updated PEGI classifications.

"They understand that by making PEGI better and stronger, they are better protected against lack of nuance, quick fixes," Bosmans said.

- Parents needed -

Bosmans also spoke out against full-on bans of games for children below a certain age -- as mooted by French President Emmanuel Macron last month ahead of an expert inquiry.

"A ban is not very nuanced. It's not very proportionate, no matter for what you apply it," he said, recalling that PEGI was created to avoid just such a scenario in the early 2000s.

What's more, in Australia -- where social media has already been banned for under-16s -- "there is now concern that kids are primarily busy with trying to circumvent the rules, sometimes with the help of their parents," Bosmans said.

"You 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't change anything," he added.

"Thinking that you can do it without the parents is the biggest mistake you can make."

L.Kwan--ThChM