News bites
News bites
Children’s Commissioner recommends changes to gambling laws Anne Longfield, the Children’s Commissioner for England has urged the government to make changes to gambling laws over fears that children and young people are spending money on ‘in-game purchases. Towards the end of 2019, she published a dedicated report; “Gaming the System” which explored children’s perceptions towards online gaming. With 93% of children playing online games (such as FIFA, Fortnight and Roblox), the report provided detailed insight into how they feel when they are making ‘in-game’ purchases without any idea as to the value of the reward. There are concerns that the ease of purchasing these ‘rewards’ and the risk of losing them could be linked to gambling. Within the report, the Commission has made a series of recommendations including: •
Allowing players to track their historic spend on ‘ingame’ purchases and incorporating maximum daily spend limits, which should automatically be turned on for children
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Amending the definition of gaming in Section 6 of the Gambling Act 2005 to regulate loot boxes as gambling
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Online games should be a focus of digital citizenship lessons in schools, rather than lessons focusing exclusively on social media
You can read the full report and its recommendations at childrenscommissioner.gov.uk
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