Game over unless we ditch the loot for kids
AUSTRALIA has ignored multiple inquiries and recommendations that children should be protected from gambling-style additions to popular games.
Loot boxes, also known as game micro-transactions, have been banned in countries including Japan, the Netherlands and Belgium, with similar recommendations in the UK, where a report warned: “If a product looks like gambling and feels like gambling, it should be regulated as gambling.”
Yet, despite calls for strong restrictions on their use during an Australian Senate inquiry two years ago and further recommendations in February last year, the federal government has yet to take action on what experts call a “big risk” to young gamers.
Loot boxes are like lucky dips filled with virtual items, such as outfits or skills, that can be bought using in-game credits – or real money.
A 2018 Senate inquiry into the field found loot boxes generated 25 per cent of the gaming industry’s $US117bn ($A151bn) revenue, with that figure set to skyrocket to 47 per cent of a $US160bn ($A207bn) market by 2022.
The inquiry also found many loot boxes met “the five established psychological criteria for gambling”, and it recommended a “comprehensive review of loot boxes in video games” led by the Communications Department.
A further inquiry in February 2020 recommended the Australian eSafety Commissioner report on options for restricting access to loot boxes by children.
But the federal government has yet to take action in response to either reports, or further advice that loot boxes be banned from children “where virtual items can be monetised”.
A spokesman for the Communications Department said it was monitoring “academic research and industry developments”.
And, in response to the 2020 report, the federal government said it “noted” but rejected a recommendation for a report on restrictions as “loot boxes would be more appropriately dealt with by the National Classification Scheme” and “broader online safety reform”.
But Central Queensland University senior postdoctoral fellow Alex Russell said restricting the use of loot boxes “and making them unavailable to under-18s seems like a no-brainer” as studies showed they could put children at risk while also exploiting problem gamblers.
Dr Russell said many games developers used the same techniques as the gambling industry to keep players spending money.
“One of the big things about loot boxes if that they draw a lot from pokies,” he said. “If you get carried away, it’s not hard to spend a lot of money.”
Research into loot boxes, led by Dr Russell for the NSW government, found more
than 60 per cent of the topselling video games featured them – and adolescents and young adults who bought loot boxes were more likely to suffer gambling problems.
A recent review of 13 studies in the field by researchers at universities of Plymouth and Wolverhampton also found 12 proved “unambiguous” links between loot boxes and problem gambling, with young males most at risk.
Cyber safety educator Leonie Smith said children overspending on loot boxes and other virtual items had become alarmingly common in Australia, particularly in mobile games where spending could be linked to a parent’s account.
“I recently saw a parent say their child had spent over
$3000 in Robux (Roblox currency) and they had no idea,” Ms Smith said.
“These companies and platforms need to take more responsibility. They’re dealing with children who don’t have an understanding of what they’re spending and a lot of parents who don’t know how to control it.”
It is a problem Sydney mother Faye James confronted after finding her son Pablo, then aged six, playing Roblox at midnight.
“I was like: ‘What the hell are you doing?’ and he said he’d been asked to join a game. I was absolutely furious,” Ms James said.
“We locked his game time during the week and now he’s only allowed one hour on Saturday and Sunday.”
Despite the restrictions, she said the eight-year-old was still fixated with the gaming platform and spent all of his pocket and birthday money on Roblox items.
“I thought it would wane because we’ve limited his screen time so much but it’s still the number one thing in his life,” Ms James said.
Neuroscience communicator and learning expert Jill Sweatman said parents should be mindful of how much time kids spent playing games, as many were designed to keep them playing.
“These games have been expertly designed by psychologists who know how to get them hooked,” Ms Sweatman said. “What they are playing is millions of dollars of research. They’re outclassed.”