Protection of minors and game developers
In the old days, developers were reluctant to enter the space of protection of minors. Then developers developed games and publishers published them. Majority of publishers did not come from Europe, and neither did any of the big console systems. But with online games the situation has dramatically changed, for the first time many European developers have a direct touch to consumers – the European Game Developers became part of the end consumer market.
This happens at a time, when more and more member states follow the Commission by perceiving games not only as a key stone in technological and business-related innovation, but also as culture. And there is a link between cultural perception and perception of minors.
This is an enormous opportunity for Europe. Suddenly European companies rise up on the market and become a relevant participant in the game. While a shift from offline games to the online games (supported by the financial crisis) the stake of Europe is grown economically, technologically and culturally.
European content is an important innovation driver and culturally more substantial. Concerning Games online games are more piracy proof and not so vulnerable than other media.
Protection of minors should not be abused for securing dominant market positions
When we talk about violence, we want to know more exactly what we mean by that. A study from Tampere University from 2004 has highlighted, that only few minors, who play games, are interested in violence as such, but more were interested in immersive gameplay that – as our life – can sometimes be violent.
This positive development is a result of network neutrality, thanks to EU-parliament and Commission, which have taken a firm stand. Filter systems were installed for the war on terror (deep package inspections), and now against child pornography (all very honourable and legitimate reasons). A debate on piracy is starting again. Where does this lead? Violent game filters? What’s next?
Network Neutrality will be an important element in this context and Internet regulation should therefore been handled with great care and reluctance. The great success of online games in Europe should not be destroyed with a regulation, which can be easy misused to leverage market privileges from offline to online. In its very heart the Internet should stay free from hard regulations in Europe to the best of Europe and Europe’s interactive content producing SMEs. Every day we prevent Internet regulation not to happen, is a day we have won for the innovation in Europe!
Developers should be allowed to carry their share of responsibility
But one has to be realistic. Concerns of protection of minors are more and more voiced. For the time being developers have been involved with PEGI only indirectly, because the developers were not part of this system – only publishers and console manufacturers.
An interesting development has been happening in Germany, where the USK system in its latest reform has opened up institutionally to GAME, the developer organization. This is a very modern trait. Concerning PEGI and the discussion how to implement it and to broaden it in the constituency of online games, this could be an interesting model. It is true, that developer organisations question themselves, why they should support at length a system beyond their control, or some organisations, which are more or less in the control of non- European forces.
The PEGI system should be opened institutionally in a similar way to the German USK system. This could be the right answer to the higher role the developers from Europe play in the changing game market. This would lead to more trustworthy PEGI, as the developer organisations are deeply rooted in the creative industries of the European member states and not perceived as something “foreign”, as are sometimes the members of ISFE in some countries. PEGI would become more credible as developer organisations are often highly regarded in the parliament, and eventually PEGI could become even more European. As a consequence the constituency of PEGI could be broadened.
This text is based on a speech held in Brussels in last July. The full speech can be found from this link.
