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U.K. Government Publishes Comments on Loot Boxes

The British government has published a response to evidence collected by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) on the subject of loot boxes in video games.

Published on Sunday, the press release is headed, "Companies must do more to ensure safe and responsible gaming and take action on ‘loot boxes’ to protect young people." It announces that a working group will be convened to this end, including games companies, platforms and regulatory bodies.

According to the release, "Games companies and platforms should provide spending controls and transparent information to all players. Protections should support the minority of players who spend a disproportionate amount of money on loot boxes, and who may be at a greater risk of harm.

"A new working group, convened by DCMS, will bring together games companies, platforms and regulatory bodies to develop industry-led measures to protect players and reduce the risk of harm. This will include measures such as parental controls, and making sure transparent, accessible information is available to all players."

The release acknowledges that some games platforms, such as Xbox, have already taken steps, such as including options that require parental permission for under-18s to spend money within games. However, the release says, "The Government wants to build on this with strong protections for children across the entire games industry and will not hesitate to consider legislation if companies do not bring in sufficient measures to keep players safe."

In addition, the press release specifies that the evidence collected by the DCMS "unveiled a link between loot boxes and gambling harms, as well as wider mental health, financial and problem-gaming harms."

Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries is quoted in the press release as saying, "We want to stop children going on spending sprees online without parental consent, spurred on by in-game purchases like loot-boxes.

"Games companies and platforms need to do more to ensure that controls and age-restrictions are applied so that players are protected from the risk of gambling harms. Children should be free to enjoy gaming safely, whilst giving parents and guardians the peace of mind they need."

The release adds that the government will launch a Video Game Research Framework to investigate the positive and negative impacts of video games.

There is also a longer summary of the DCMS consultation and the government response.

On the subject of legislation, this summary gives the government response: "Our view is that it would be premature to pursue legislation with regards to loot boxes without first pursuing enhanced industry-led protections. We expect games companies and platforms to improve protections for children, young people and adults, and for tangible results to begin to be seen in the near future. If that does not happen, we will not hesitate to consider legislative options, if we deem it necessary to protect children, young people and adults."

The longer summary also mentions there are 15 peer reviewed empirical studies that "identified a stable and consistent association between loot box use and problem gambling." However, the summary says, "There are a range of plausible explanations that could underpin this association between loot box spending and problem gambling behaviours, and research has not established whether a causal relationship exists."

Reporting on the issue today, the Guardian newspaper quotes Dr David Zendle of the University of York. Criticising the government's decision, Dr Zendle said, “Prior select committee inquiries have unambiguously shown that certain bad actors within the video game industry cannot be trusted to self-regulate when it comes to player protection.By making those same industry bodies the ones that are responsible for regulating loot boxes, DCMS is essentially guaranteeing that foxes are the ones guarding the hen house.”