Annoying. Don't let the industry autoregulate, it's always lukewarm and ineffective.
Legislate. Ban underage gambling.
This is not a complicated issue, at all, the only barriers are lobbying and corruption.
this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2023
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Absolutely. Time and time again researchers have found that lootboxes have the same psychological effects as gambling, which should be enough justification for regulating it as such. Publishers try to excuse it by the technicality that people can't (directly) win real money from it, glossing over how they lose real money every time. It's all the negative effects, with only the possibility of a fictional reward for it.
"Are you 18?"
"Yes"
Or the unsettling alternative: "are you 18?" "Yes" "Prove it"
Didn't the UK govt already try that with a gaming ID that went nowhere?
Oh, is this just for kids? That's the worst option since it means checking and privacy invasion.
I'd rather they just flat out ban them. Loot boxes never make anything better.
Pretty much, I didn't see much in the way of actual solutions in the article.
The first is a commitment to make available technological controls to effectively restrict anyone under 18 from acquiring a loot box without the consent or knowledge of a parent or guardian. Many of these controls are already available on games platforms but aren't as widely used as they could be. The new principles set out best-practice for their use in an effort to increase take-up.
The second is to drive awareness of those controls with a public information campaign. An expert panel will be set up to share best practices on age assurance issues.
This is pretty pathetic and limp. They need to take a stronger stance on this than just get parent/guardian agreement - we already know how this will go and that circumvention is just going to be lying about age.
I saw a pathetic statement from that woman in the news the other day - "we can trust the games industry to regulate itself blah blah"... Can we fuck. Typical free market Tory politician.
Great news!
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