Including online games in social media bans is unworkable, unnecessary and would harm young people

Including online games in social media bans is unworkable, unnecessary and would harm young people Keza MacDonald As calls for restrictions on under-16s’ online activities gather pace, some are urging curbs on online gaming. The idea is a mess from top to bottom L ast week, Meta and YouTube were found liable for creating intentionally addictive products that affected the wellbeing of young social media users. The ruling has supercharged an already growing movement from governments and regulators to restrict or ban social media use for under-16s, as has been done in Australia , to protect children from potential harm. But there is another way that about 85% of kids and teens congregate online – and that is through video games. It has been suggested that curbs on online gaming should be considered alongside social media restrictions in future legislation. There is some precedent: in 2021, China restricted young people’s online gaming time to one hour a day on weekends and holidays. But I have a lot of questions about how such curbs would work, and whether they should be attempted. One argument in favour of restrictions is that some online games have proved to be potentially unsafe environments for children. If you are a parent, you will have heard of Roblox – and not just because it’s enormously popular. Roblox claims to have 381 million monthly users, most of whom are children. But it has made headlines because of several cases of grooming and child exploitation that took place on the platform. It’s also notorious for distasteful and age-inappropriate content . Partly in response to this, Roblox has made a big song and dance about improving its child safety features. Voice chat is now restricted to verified accounts for users aged 13 and over, for instance. But if you have millions of children mixing online in a space that teens and adults are free to enter, can that ever be completely safe? Not every video game has a significant online component. Most do not involve...