EU Kids Act would treat every player as a child until proven otherwise, and puts daily rewards in doubt

The European Commission's proposal names video games directly. Two legal readings set out what it would ask of any studio with players in the EU, small ones included, and how long there is to object.

AI-drafted from 3 sources. This story was written with AI from the outside reporting listed under Sources, and checked by automated tools before it went up. The originals have the full detail.

The European Commission published its proposal for the EU Kids Act in September, and games are in it by name. The draft, formally the Keeping Internet Digital Services Trustworthy & Accountable Act, runs to 99 pages and covers what it calls video games, video game platforms and online games alongside social networks, video sharing sites, chatbots and app stores.

It has already alarmed small developers. One thread on r/IndieDev calls it the “kill the every indie game ever” act. The proposal is not law, and the two expert readings published by PocketGamer.biz are calmer than that. They do not describe a small change, though, and neither mentions any lighter treatment for small studios.

What the draft asks of a game

The fullest summary is a guide by Veronica Perez Lima, a policy advisor at Flux Digital Policy. Unlike social media, she writes, games get no default minimum age. They must provide a high level of privacy, safety and security for minors, including in games that can be played without an account. “To do this, they must assume that all users are minors until they can properly prove otherwise.”

From her reading of the text:

• Any feature that minors may not use has to sit behind age verification. Terms and conditions or asking the player their age will not do.
• Access for under-13s is to be enabled and controlled through parental tools. Perez Lima calls the drafting ambiguous and says it could mean every game has to check whether a player is under 13.
• Geolocation, camera and microphone access, contact syncing and account recommendations are off by default.
• Push notifications are off by default and must not interfere with sleep or school hours.
• App stores must apply an age rating system and stop minors getting or buying apps rated above their age. The rating criteria cover game features such as monetisation and chat as well as content.
• Platforms that let users make and upload games must give those creators the tools to comply. The creator is still responsible.
• An AI companion or chatbot inside a game must not switch on automatically or be pushed at minors.

Streaks, daily rewards and coming back tomorrow

The part with the most reach is a ban on exposing children to features “intended, or can reasonably be foreseen, to encourage compulsive or excessive use”. Perez Lima says that covers techniques that penalise a player for being away, such as losing progress, and that daily streaks, engagement rewards and notifications designed to bring players back may be caught too.

Isabel Davies, a senior associate at the law firm Wiggin, put it more bluntly to PocketGamer.biz: “As drafted, daily log-ins, activity streaks and other time-based mechanisms are under threat.” Studios, she says, will have to decide whether to keep those systems for adult players in the EU, which means proper age checks, or remove them for everyone there. Her view is that this “will massively impact many games’ core gameplay loop.”

Loot boxes and virtual currencies are mentioned in the proposal's introduction but, for games, not in the legislation itself. Both commentators expect them to turn up in the Digital Fairness Act, which the Commission has said it will propose this autumn.

How long this takes

The European Parliament and the Council of the EU now negotiate the text. Perez Lima puts that at between 8 and 24 months and expects the obligations to change on the way, while adding that the Act “is not going away”.

Wiggin partner Peter Lewin makes the point most small teams will feel: “The objectives behind these new laws are of course, commendable. But there’s no getting away from the fact that the regulatory burden they can place on businesses is real and potentially very significant.”

For a solo developer or a small studio the useful step now is an inventory. List what your game does with streaks, daily rewards, timers that punish absence, notifications, chat, and anything that asks for a camera, microphone or location. Those are the features the draft names. Then, as Davies says, “now is the time to voice your concerns”, through a trade body if you belong to one.

Sources

• A pocket guide to the EU Kids Act: What games companies need to know (PocketGamer.biz)
• Daily log-in bonuses and activity streaks under threat in EU Kids Act (PocketGamer.biz)
• Eu just proposed the "kill the every indie game ever" act (r/IndieDev)

Image: Illustration: AI-generated for Gaming World