Children’s Commissioner for England calls for action on loot boxes

The Children’s Commissioner of England’s office raised concerns over a recent refusal by the UK Government to add loot boxes to the Gambling Act. The Commissioner has chosen to ponder the wider implications of this refusal and how it stands to potentially tempt children into unsafe practices.

The Commissioner’s response followed the government’s refusal to take legislative action, and after the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport gave assurances that a better way to regulate these digital goods has been discovered, hinting at the parental consent that all publishers must secure in order to allow U-18’s accounts to buy digital goods.

The Commissioner’s office said that 93% of all children in the country play video games, which means that the exposure to "inappropriate features" such as loot boxes is high. The office went into detail on what loot boxes are and how they encourage children to purchase items online, promising the potential of a better reward.

The Commissioner’s office than presented evidence by witness account with children confirming when inquired that "buying loot boxes feels like gambling." The Children’s Commissioner said that the government’s decision from earlier this week was insufficient.

Government officials said that there was no "stable and consistent" association between loot boxes and problem gambling. However, this is not good enough for the Commissioner. The office then went on to use actual data from the games themselves. The Commissioner cautioned that the odds of some rewards were very low and thus stimulated more spending in order to obtain the desired items.

The review of Gambling Act 2005 though is not likely to incorporate loot boxes in it, although the Commissioner’s office insist that it does. The government has argued that should this be the case, children may begin using parental accounts to dodge lockouts. The DCMS has in the meantime launched a consultation.

The Department hopes that by collecting sufficient data and feedback it can find a middle ground. The currently-proposed solution and the one that the Commissioner doubts – is the use of parental or guardian consent. But this doesn’t seem to be sufficient, the Commissioner argues.

Proving that loot boxes are a form of gambling, despite the numerous similarities, has proven very difficult. For one, the Netherlands has lost the latest court case asserting just that, although Belgium used the same premise to outlaw loot boxes.

Image credit: Blizzard