Article Code:

Author: Aayush Manapat

Title: Government policy and Video Games

In these trying times, video games have increased in importance and popularity as people try
to find a way to escape from their disappointing reality into a world where they are a valiant
hero or a covert spy. This increased popularity is clearly evident in the 45% increase in the
time spent playing video games every day by the average American gamer. With millions
playing hours of video games every day, the question must be asked, how are governments
dealing with the gaming community?

The first mention of video games in any governmental body was in the United Kingdom’s
House of Commons where MP George Foulkes first raised the issue of the effects the arcade
game “Space Invaders” was having in his constituency. He said that children “become
crazed, with eyes glazed, oblivious to everything around them” when playing the game.
However, thankfully no real action was taken with regards to his fears about video games or
video game development as we know it today might not have been a thing in the United
Kingdom.

Nowadays, most governments’ fears about video games lie in three main categories: the
social, financial, and data privacy harms. When it comes to social harms, the main concerns
are that video games are a notorious time waster and that online games could open up young
children to online abuse which could scar them for life. The financial harms on the other hand
mostly revolve around in-game purchases-wherein gamers can buy game items and virtual
skins using an online store-and reckless spending with respect to these purchases. The fear is
that a child will use their parents’ credit cards and recklessly use money-the value of which
they still do not understand yet. Finally, governments are afraid that online gaming opens the
data of children to collection at such a young age and are also concerned about the misuse
and sharing of this data with other developers without the knowledge of the child’s parents.

Most notably, the United Kingdom’s proposed solutions to these problems have generated
widespread outrage. On the 12th of September 2019, a House of Commons select committee
published a report on “Immersive and addictive technologies” which addressed a few of these
problems in an extremely controversial manner to say the least. The report called for loot
boxes not to be sold to children, and also called for the classification of loot crates under the
Gambling Act of 2005. This would most likely result in most games removing loot box
features, which occurred in Belgium where loot crates were classified as a form of gambling.
This is bad news simply because removing such a critical feature from games such as FIFA
would make them less enjoyable for the average gamer, furthermore it would eventually
reduce the number of players on the game-negatively affecting the developer. More
importantly, the head of the committee which produced the report also stated that “It’s time
for games companies to use the huge quantities of data they gather about their players, to do
more to proactively identify vulnerable gamers.”, this is an extremely scary thought as the
UK government essentially is looking to recommend developers to create psychological
profiles on every player. Now these profiles could be easily distributed between developers
without the player even being notifies about it, essentially giving out your personal character
to others. Although, this report was never explicitly addressed in the House of Commons or
put in to force it does clearly indicate the intentions and aspirations of the UK government.
However, by far the biggest concern of most governments is the violence of video games and
the impact this has on gamers. On this note, President Trump’s statement "We must stop the
glorification of violence in our society. This includes the gruesome and grisly video games
that are now commonplace. It is too easy today for troubled youth to surround themselves
with a culture that celebrates violence. We must stop or substantially reduce this and it has to
begin immediately," is a clear depiction of how the United States has always been vary of the
violence in video games. In fact, the United States has always been on the forefront of taking
action on the content of video games, it was the actions of the Unites States congress which
pushed for the establishing of the Entertainment software ratings board (ESRB) the ratings of
which can be seen on any video game today after the release of the violent, sexist and wildly
popular Mortal Kombat. Additionally, there has been a lot of proposed legislation in the US
in order to regulate the content of video games such as The Video game health labelling act
which called for more clear identification of violent video games. Wherein, any video game
title that was given a high enough ESRB rating was required to display "WARNING:
Excessive exposure to violent video games and other violent media has been linked to
aggressive behaviour.", on its packaging. However, this act was never passed by the US
congress and put into force.

Nevertheless, these actions are not without opposition. Apart from the entire gaming
community opposing the claims of politicians and their actions, there exists an enormous
lobbying group on behalf of the video games industry- the Entertainment Software
Association (ESA). The ESA has spent millions lobbying against legislation such as the The
Video game health labelling act, and has also created a network of gamers, under the name
Video game voters network, who use social media to create awareness about the causes of the
ESA.

As a whole, the main message propagated by the ESA is that simply put, there is no clear cut
evidence that playing video games has any ties to violent and rash behaviour. Now, you
might be wondering is this really true? Well yes, studies from Oxford university’s
Psychology and Neuroscience departments revealed that “Violent video game engagement is
not associated with adolescents’ aggressive behaviour”, hence the widespread outrage in the
gaming community.

In light of all this, Governmental policy on video games is not all doom and gloom. The
European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) actually has quite positive
precautions for the data of Gamers. The GDPR makes it compulsory for developers to
provide gamers with all the information concerning the processing and storage of their data
which can be accessed at any time gamers see fit. Additionally, GDPR makes it such that any
and all data of minors must only be used for the necessary functions of the game and not for
any advertisement use cases. Finally, the GDPR also requires developers to severely
minimise the amount of user data collected by developers and when it is collected the
anonymization of certain details is compulsory.

As a whole, while government policy on the video gaming industry’s vulnerabilities is a

mixed bag, it is still a necessity. Not having any sort of regulation on the data privacy and
social ills such as online bullying exposes gamers to experiences that are simply not what
they signed up for. On the other hand, governments attempting to control the actual content
of video games is just not right, especially considering that there is no actual scientific
evidence that removing violent content from video games has any effect whatsoever on the
violence of youth. Furthermore, the US Supreme Court actually ruled that video games were
a form of free expression and protected speech under the first amendment to the United States
constitution- clearly showing how the contents of video games cannot and should not be
modified by government policy. With this in mind, discussion between governments and
developers is pivotal, as it gives the gaming industry a chance to show how they are taking
care of players’ wellbeing, allowing for governments to understand the perspectives of
creators and come to a suitable middle ground wherein players, developers and government
alike are all satisfied.

Instagram:
Video games have evolved drastically over the last few years, and this evolutions the user
base has also increased significantly. However, as with anything, there are unwanted aspects
of video games. These aspects have been dealt with by the government- with dubious
success. Government policy will shape the video game industry whether developers like it or
not, from Trump’s wild claims that video games cause school shootings to the European
Union’s infamous GDPR. To access this content and more about how government policy is
attempting to influence the video game industry, visit the website to read the article at
www.epicenternews.net .
#Videogames #GDPR #trump #gaming #epicenter

Twitter:
Are video games under attack from Government or is regulation necessary? To read the full
article visit the website and continue reading at www.epicenternews.net .

Website:
Government policy and Video games

Citations:
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.171474
https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/digital-
culture-media-and-sport-committee/news/immersive-technology-report-17-19/