Ukie responds to Government’s social media restrictions for under 16s

 

The games industry takes its responsibility to player safety seriously and has done so for decades. The PEGI age rating system has provided parents and players with clear, trusted guidance on game content for over 20 years. New PEGI criteria, which has come into effect this month, will reinforce this at the point of purchase: games with entirely unrestricted communication, will be automatically rated PEGI 18, regardless of their content.

Ukie, the trade body for the UK video games industry, welcomes the Government’s confirmation that video games are explicitly recognised as distinct from social media in the proposed restrictions for under-16s. We have consistently argued that video games and social media are different, in their architecture, their design, and their evidenced impact on children, and we are pleased that this distinction has been recognised.

It is also worth being clear about what parents can already do today, and what the industry has already built in. Across major platforms, communication features for child accounts are switched off by default. Parents who want to go further can restrict or remove the ability for unknown players to contact their child entirely, whether through platform-level parental controls or through technologies such as facial age estimation. Children in these environments are not exposed to strangers by default, that protection is built in.

We are committed to working with Government to build on this foundation. We have offered to act as a technical partner to DSIT, DCMS and the Home Office, co-creating regulatory frameworks appropriate to games, convening the industry on shared solutions, and providing evidence on what is working.

Ukie has also today launched a new conversation guide in partnership with Internet Matters, aimed at parents to help them navigate conversation around online safety with their children. You can find the guide, along with step by step instructions on how to setup parental controls right here: https://askaboutgames.com/get-started/setup-parental-controls