The All-Party Parliamentary
Group for Video Games and Esports met yesterday to discuss Online Harms in the
context of the video games industry.
The group were joined by Minister
for Digital and Culture, Caroline Dinenage MP, who spoke about on the
impressive contribution games make to the UK economy. She also praised the
industry’s actions during COVID with Games for Carers and for sharing
Government public health messaging in their games to millions of players.
Finally, she stated that the Government is keen to continue to support the
sector and noted the additional £1m provided for the UK Games Fund in last
week’s Comprehensive Spending Review.
The Minister was followed by a
panel including Ukie, EA, and Jagex, chaired by Alex Sobel MP,
with the discussion touching on the actions the games industry has historically
taken and continue to take on online harms.
The panel stressed that the
industry is ready, more than most, for online harms legislation thanks to its
proactiveness in protecting players and from its long history of working with
Government to prevent harms.
It was highlighted how, for
games, player safety is a business
imperative as well as a moral obligation. Players will leave if they don’t have fun, and so maintaining a sense of
community is the lifeblood of many games.
The importance of education was
also raised, the point being made that Government and business must empower
people to use the tools at their disposal through education. The industry was
once again cited to be proactive here thanks to the Digital Schoolhouse programme
and ongoing information campaigns such as Get, Set, Go!
Finally, regarding loot boxes,
the industry panel emphasised the recent steps taken towards transparency
including drop rate disclosures and a new PEGI descriptor highlighting in-game purchases with random items.
The event overall highlighted the strengths of the UK games
industry in terms of protecting players in the area of online harms and
stressed the industry’s commitment to continue doing so in the future.