„The Act has really good intentions, [but] ultimately strengthens services it was meant to contain.”
the UK’s new Online Safety Act comes into effect, with the aim of making the internet safer – especially for children. It will apply to all „search services“ and services that allow users to interact with one another, including social media, video-sharing platforms, and of course – video games.
While it’s a UK law, it will apply to any company or service with a significant number of UK users, with Ofcom – the UK’s independent regulator of online safety – enforcing compliance.
Specifically, the Act requires companies to take „robust action“ against illegal content (including the likes of child sexual abuse, extreme pornography, or terrorism); and against content harmful for children (including pornography, bullying, or abusive content). Adults will also be impacted, allowing greater control over the type of content and the people they’re able to engage with online.
But what does this mean for the video game industry? How will online game services be affected? And just how enforceable will this new Act be?
The Online Safety Act will be wide-reaching in its impact across the internet, but to what extent has the games industry really been considered during the hearing process?
„From the moment the government had the idea of an Online Safety Bill and published its white paper on it in 2019, social media firms were in the crosshairs“, says George Osborn, editor of Video Games Industry Memo who was head of campaign and communications at Ukie during the time of bill negotiations.
„This makes loads of sense because those platforms are more likely to be somewhere you can share harmful stuff. They have a bigger reach to more people. They let you share images and video content more easily. And it was hard to hold them to account, despite things like terror content, child sexual exploitation material and disinformation popping up on them.“
This is why the likes of Discord, Reddit and BlueSky are rolling out new safety features. Just this week, BlueSky added age verification to its direct messaging.
„However, the decision to bring all services that have user-to-user communication meant that games would get folded in“, Osborn continues. „And even though the industry did respond to consultations, spoke with ministers and with the new regulator Ofcom, there was little to no effort to understand how the bill would hit games companies or much focus on them.
„It’s why the 300-page act barely mentions games (I think it literally references it once), even though it puts loads of responsibilities on companies.“
Dr. Celia Pontin, director of public policy and public affairs at Flux Digital Policy, notes that such a wide-ranging regulation needs a variety of companies to be involved in the regulatory process – including video game companies of all sizes for diversity of voice.
„Although trade bodies played their vital part in engaging with legislators and regulators, when you look at the responses submitted to public consultations there were no individual voices from the video games industry beyond a couple of the largest organisations“, says Pontin. „Video games companies of all types and sizes need to feel empowered to get involved in policy development because when it comes down to implementation, they are the experts in their field.“
From today, any game with user-to-user communication (such as voice or text chat) that’s available in the UK will need to follow the law. Broadly, Osborn explains, studios will need moderation tools to remove harmful content, better reporting processes, and measures in place to protect children if a game is accessible to them.
„That’s the bare-bones version of the law“, Osborn warns. „The reality is that a lawyer will likely tell you that you’ve got to do a hell of a lot more to meet the provisions of the 300-page act and the many volumes of guidance put out by Ofcom. And given that the regulator can dish out fines of up to £18m or 10 percent of your global turnover, and in some rare cases bang up a senior exec, it is something that you really need good advice on quickly.“
He adds: „The only crumb of comfort is that Ofcom is still rolling out the final bits of the act and has said it’ll take its time to fully enforce. But with games having historically been a target for moral panics and policymaker madness, you don’t want to bet too closely on not being picked up.
