EGDF statement on the EU Kids Act announcement
EGDF shares the commitment to a high level of protection for minors, welcomes the focus on supporting parents and guardians, and supports a harmonised European framework for the protection of minors. For these reasons, the European games industry has built, over two decades, a functioning co-regulatory system for the protection of minors: PEGI age ratings and content descriptors as pre-contractual information, the PEGI Code of Conduct for safety by design in online gameplay environments and parental control tools on game platforms. PEGI system is built on a risk-based approach that granularly balances children’s access to digital games culture with their protection from content and business practices unsuitable for their age.
EGDF calls for regulators to strengthen the role of European co-regulatory systems, PEGI and USK, in the negotiations. European cultural sovereignty is based on ensuring that children’s access to European digital culture is based on European standards. Therefore, EGDF is pleased to note that the EU Kids Act is, in general, built on recognition of industry-led self- and co-regulatory systems, PEGI and USK and the intention to make these longstanding instruments and rules the standard for all games made available in the EU. However, further clarifications are also needed to ensure that all distribution platforms follow European PEGI/USK age ratings for games.
Games are cultural products, and therefore children’s right to protection must be carefully balanced with children’s right to play and access to leisure during the regulatory process. EGDF cautions against sweeping age verification measures applicable to all games. This departs from the risk-based approach adopted in the DSA and its Art. 28 Guidelines. EGDF generally supports default-off settings for certain features and believes parents should be empowered to grant their children access to games according to the child’s maturity. This approach balances the responsibility of our industry to keep their services safe, and the role parents play in considering the specific situation of their child. This respects the principles of protection, privacy and proportionality.
EGDF is pleased to note that the Commission acknowledges that age gating happens at the device level and age signals generated by these age gates should be accessible to all applications used on the device. However, further work is needed to ensure that game developers can rely on and have free-of-charge access to both age signals and parental control tools from both platforms and operating systems. This is the key to ensuring that game developers can take additional measures to ensure the safety of the children playing their games. Furthermore, access to device- and platform-level age signals and parental control tools would reduce the regulatory burden for European developers.
The scope of the regulation requires further discussion. The scope of the regulation should be developed in a more risk-based direction. Furthermore, EGDF welcomes the fact that edugames used in schools are not included in the scope of the regulation. Regulators should further examine the possibility of widening that exemption to also cover games that are playable in libraries, games used for medical purposes in hospitals and games accessible in museums. Similarly, non-profit games created by natural persons as a hobby or art (e.g. on game jams) should be excluded from the scope to ensure the regulation does not create unreasonable limitations on freedom of expression.
For more information on the EGDF approach to the protection of minors, please visit: https://www.egdf.eu/documentation/7-balanced-protection-of-vulnerable-players/protection-of-minors/