New U.S. Senate Bill Proposed to Target Loot Boxes and Microtransactions
Loot boxes and microtransactions are once again headlines in the news. The reason is that Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) has announced a bill he’s introducing that would ban these practices in games played by minors. The bill is called The Protecting Children from Abusive Games Act. This comes months after the Federal Trade Commission promised it would investigate loot boxes after Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH) wrote a letter talking about predatory microtransactions in games. Hawley has said:
“Social media and video games prey on user addiction, siphoning our kids’ attention from the real world and extracting profits from fostering compulsive habits. No matter this business model’s advantages to the tech industry, one thing is clear: there is no excuse for exploiting children through such practices.
When a game is designed for kids, game developers shouldn’t be allowed to monetize addiction. And when kids play games designed for adults, they should be walled off from compulsive microtransactions. Game developers who knowingly exploit children should face legal consequences.”
This conversation is nothing new. It’s been happening for a while and back in 2018, Belgium declared loot boxes were categorized as gambling, but because they failed to follow the laws in regards to gambling, were deemed illegal.
Meanwhile, the FTC has said it is preparing to hold a workshop on August 7, 2019 to discuss this topic. In addition, the video game lobbyist group, Entertainment Software Association, has released the following statement:
“Numerous countries, including Ireland, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom, determined that loot boxes do not constitute gambling. We look forward to sharing with the senator the tools and information the industry already provides that keeps the control of in-game spending in parents’ hands. Parents already have the ability to limit or prohibit in-game purchases with easy to use parental controls.”