Panic consultations!!!, 05/03/2026
UK social media ban plans put game companies on red alert đ¨
UK consultation on banning social media for under-16s puts video games in the crosshairs
White House mulls forced Tencent divestments on national security grounds
PokĂŠmon Pokopia channels pocket monster Animal Crossing vibes to top this weekâs releases
Hello VGIM-ers,
Drum roll, please. Iâm chuffed to announce the first three sessions taking place at this yearâs Games for Change Summit in London on Wednesday 15th April.
The conference, which boasts the theme Community Channelled, is all about using the power of games and our communities to do good stuff in our digital and physical worlds.
To get the ball rolling ahead of the full schedule this month, Iâm allowed to talk to you about three sessions that weâve put together already.
First up, weâve got documentary filmmaker Alysia Judge interviewing Robert Steen about the documentary The Remarkable Life of Ibelin. Alysia will be asking Robert how the death of his son, following a degenerative disease, revealed the depth of connection within digital communities. Theyâll then go on to discuss how it inspired the creation of a âNobel Prize for video game communitiesâ backed by Norwayâs Prime Minister and a forthcoming film adaptation thatâll see Stephen Graham of Adolescence-fame play Robert.
Next, weâve got Jude Ower MBE and Matthias Gredal Norvig of Sybo interviewing Anjali Bhimani, the voice behind Symmetra in Overwatch and a Critical Role regular, about the importance of inclusive storytelling in creating properly powerful game communities for a live episode of The Good Game Club podcast.
And finally (at least for now), Ximeng Fang, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Oxford Universityâs SaĂŻd Business School, will be revealing the results of longitudinal research conducted with Sony Interactive Entertainment to discover whether players can be inspired to make sustainable food choices in their communities simply through playing games.
Weâll be revealing the full slate of talks, panels, roundtables, and fireside chats in a few weeks. But if you want to come along, make sure you grab a ticket while youâve got a chance.
Oh, and one last thing before we go into the newsletter. Iâm on holiday for the next two weeks because itâs my birthday tomorrow.
So, Tom Regan and George Young will be filling in with a couple of newsletters celebrating some prominent video game anniversaries taking place this year.
The big read - Panic consultations?
Jumping on the ban-wagon: The UK Government has launched a consultation to explore whether it could ban social media for under-16s. And unfortunately for the games industry, parts of it are very much in the crosshairs.
Consulting the masses: The Department of Science, Innovation, and Technologyâs (DSIT) Growing up in the online world survey will consider how children use digital technology with the intention of expanding upon the provisions of the already hefty Online Safety Act. The consultation aims to explore areas such as whether there should be a minimum age for social media use, if the digital age of consent should increase to 16, the impact of certain mechanics on how young people use social media, and how technologies like age verification or assurance could support a ban.
In the game: The consultation undoubtedly has social media platforms at the heart of its remit. But it also raises the prospect of age restrictions on access to âgaming sitesâ and games where users can create their own content: potentially dragging big chunks of the industry into a much tighter regulatory environment in the process.
Relatively measured
Pretty good: On the face of it, DSITâs consultation is pretty reasonable. In comparison to the EUâs kangaroo court Digital Fairness Act consultation, the bulk of the industry-focused part of Growing up in the online world is fair. The paper accompanying the consultation consistently identifies positives about social media interactions, while using neatly precise language to explain specific areas of concern. The 62 questions posed to industry and civil society are tightly focused on the consultationâs brief, but offer plenty of room for discursive or dissenting opinions beyond âban this sick filth.â VGIM-approved policy wonks like Dr Celia Pontin have also noted that DSITâs briefing document highlights obvious positives of young people accessing online games, such as the educational value of games like Minecraft and their wider value as a social space.
Targeted action?: That said, the consultation document makes it clear that its evidence gathering on social media very much has games in mind. As part of its aim to âensure children are protected on the services with the features and functions that are most likely to increase their risk of exposure to harmful contentâ, DSIT says that sites and apps where children can âplay, create, or share gamesâ are up for assessment. It doesnât explicitly say âwe might want to regulate Roblox.â It just happens to perfectly describe a platform that could be in scope and was initially omitted from Australiaâs landmark social media ban that kicked this conversation off. Hmm.
On the mind: Aside from giving Roblox and Epicâs public policy teams the wobbles, DSITâs questions about whether certain design features should be restricted for young people capture practices seen across the wider games industry. The most obvious risk here is potential concerns over age-restricting âstranger-pairingâ, which, in the absolute worst-case scenario, risks making pretty much any form of online multiplayer problematic for younger players. But the consultationâs decision to raise questions about the appropriateness of in-service purchasing for under 16s (especially loot boxes), the impact of âaffirmationâ mechanics that could include in-game achievements, and whether thereâs appetite for a China-style curfew on online access. The subtext is simple: games might not be the focus here, but theyâre definitely in scope. That means the results of the consultation and the regulatory reaction on the other side will definitely land on our doorsteps.
Surveying troubles
Policy-based evidence making: And in bad news for the games industry and social media more generally, the industry-focused consultation only partially reveals DSITâs intent. The departmentâs decision to launch separate surveys for parents and carers concerned about social media and for young people aged 10-21 makes perfect sense from an evidence-gathering perspective. Unfortunately, both surveys are designed in ways to generate figures that will almost certainly support deeper regulatory action - rather than offer up a meaningful evidence base to build policy on.
Consistency is key: As with the main consultation, the player and parent surveys cover the same areas addressed in the industry-oriented document. There are questions about social media platforms in general. There are posers about the impact of certain design features on users. It asks about targeted subject areas like AI chatbots, usage of Virtual Private Networks, and support for mobile phone bans in school. It also directly asks about 16 as the age for digital consent and comfort, or otherwise, about the use of age assurance or age verification technology to govern the limit. Both surveys also ask demographic questions to understand who is responding to the questions.
Ironic age verification mishap alert: But in its efforts to be accessible, the surveys make some glaring methodological errors. Outside of asking a few questions that are designed to prove youâre not a bot, neither survey has any meaningful way to identify who is actually responding to the consultation. This is particularly the case with the young people survey, which somewhat ironically uses a slider to declare age (rather than, say, using an age estimation tool). It raises the realistic prospect that the dataset will contain respondents who arenât who they say they are, gently polluting the sample size.
Useless data?: More problematically, many of the survey questions are written in a way thatâll produce handy headline numbers rather than meaningful data. For example, one of the questions in the young peopleâs survey asks people âhow much time do you think you spend on social mediaâ, defining it as all of âbrowsing the internet, using social media, streaming videos, playing online gamesâ (before excluding doing homework or studying). That breadth, which is mirrored in a similar question on the parent survey about screen time, is raising fears that the figures thatâll come back from the survey response will generate headlines but wonât support nuanced evidence-based decision-making. âThese questions are useless,â said a source, who is an academic familiar with surveying methodology. âYouâll get numbers, youâll get responses. But you canât know from that question whether youâre getting accurate data.â
Black and white thinking: And while the wider consultation allows for discussion, the two surveys are designed in ways that steer respondents towards answers that strengthen the case for the ban. Both forms ask what they think young people would do without social media, presenting wholesome or healthy answers like âreading for pleasureâ, âhelping out at homeâ, or âsleepingâ. One of the questions on the parentsâ survey about whatâs the best way to protect young people offers âblanket social media banâ, âminimum age for the most risky functionsâ, and ârestrictions to time spent on screens like curfewsâ. And while parents are given some welcome granularity to answer whether they think the digital age of consent should range between 13 and 16 years old, young people are pressed on whether they think 16 is the right age to be accessing social media. The public polling element of the consultation appears to be worryingly narrow, running the risk of making the Governmentâs mind up for it.
Get involved
On rails outcome?: So, what should game companies make of it all? Ultimately, the direction of travel feels pretty set. Social media bans are popping up all across the world. The Government is under pressure to act, both from the House of Lords and through wider public concern. There will be few tears shed if limits are imposed on social media companies after more than a decade of rogue state behaviour. And even though online games themselves are likely to have ways to mitigate or limit harm, game-friendly social platforms like Discord and Twitch will almost certainly be affected. This pretty much guarantees that any regulation to emerge from the consultation will hit the industry, even if it does so indirectly through the infrastructure wrapped around it.
Wriggle room available: However, that doesnât mean the situation is hopeless. There are enough clues within the consultation to suggest DSIT is open to avoiding a blanket ban. The parent and young people surveys may feel like theyâre trying to generate headline stats to batter social media with, but they still allow respondents to express positive sentiment about social media (e.g. young people being able to express possible downsides to a cut-off at 16). There are questions about the value of safety features like parental controls or teen accounts, suggesting the Government is open to mitigation or exemption from the worst of the rules for companies that do seek to protect users. And while the Government is under political pressure to act, influential online safety advocacy groups like the NSPCC and the Molly Rose Foundation have expressed caution or directly opposed blanket bans on social media use for teens. This gives it flexibility to divert course from totally banning young people from online environments, something that could play favourably for game companies (whose usually limited and policed in-game communication channels compare favourably to wider social media).
Submit (or else): So do make time to respond to the consultation before it closes on 26th May. Whether your game has in-scope features or youâre simply worried about your community being cut off from Discord, it is worthwhile submitting your thoughts as an individual, as a company, or to a relevant trade association before the deadline. Itâs certainly true that games arenât the main focus of the move to ban social media access for under-16s. But given that the medium relies upon thriving online communities to succeed, and that policymakers across the world will be watching what happens in the UK, making sure your voice is heard will increase the likelihood that the industry will get a fair crack of the whip when the evidence is sifted through later this year.
News in brief
Tencent trouble: The White House is considering forcing Tencent to sell its stakes in several popular video game businesses. It has been reported that the Trump administration has held high-level meetings to ask whether the companyâs US and Finnish game investments represent a national security risk on data transfer grounds. There is no word yet on whether the Trump administration plans a similar investigation into the Public Investment Fundâs proposed acquisition of Electronic Arts. Funny that.
Uh-oh: Netflix has claimed that Paramountâs hefty acquisition of Warner Bros will result in cuts âin excess of $16bnâ in the next 18 months. Ted Sarandos, the companyâs CEO, made the claim in an interview with Bloomberg, where he provided his reflections on being gazumped by a debt-laden bid fronted by Trump allies and allegedly backed by Middle Eastern cash. Will the likely commercial pain that is coming Paramountâs way spell bad news for WBâs game studios? Weâre likely to find out soon enough.
Computer should say no: UK press watching publication Press Gazette picked up last weekâs news that the owners of the formerly good games media site VideoGamer punted all its staff out the door and replaced them with bots. The story landed just days before Aftermath reported that Australian games site GamesHub had been similarly flipped, with its new owners using it to churn out content related to online gambling. The NPC era of news writing is here, and Iâm really not a fan of it.
Valveâs New York State of Bind: Valve has found itself at the centre of another lawsuit. This time, New Yorkâs Attorney General Letitia James has filed a hefty wadge of documents claiming that the companyâs lucrative combo of loot boxes and a massive open-market for skin trading means its business model constitutes âquintessentialâ gambling. The Financial Timesâ Alphaville has covered the story comprehensively and entertainingly, with a Simpsons reference for the ages to keep sad millennial readers like me happy.
CAPping a busy week off: Speaking of loot boxes, the UKâs Committee of Advertising Practice published an enforcement notice telling mobile game companies to disclose loot boxes properly by 26th May or face sanction. The enforcement action suggests that games rated with PEGI, which must feature the âpaid random itemâ descriptor if the game contains loot boxes, should be fine. But with Appleâs App Store having its own rating system that doesnât really account for prominent disclosures, Flux Digital ponders what this means for app store listings (and particularly the âread moreâ text at the top of them).
Moving on
Jenniver Ivan is Sony Interactive Entertainmentâs new Vice President, Legal - Product, Privacy, & AI GovernanceâŚJim Hendriks is now the Senior Producer at Avalanche Studios GroupâŚEkrem Shahin has hopped over to Grant Thornton to become an M&A Tech and Media PartnerâŚNathan Mills is PQubeâs new Communications ManagerâŚAnd congrats to Luke Lancaster, who has been appointed Head of International Games Week at Aussie screen culture institution ACMIâŚ
Jobs ahoy
Netflix is snapping up a Senior Manager, Games Licensing OperationsâŚGoogle has opened up a role in New York for a Strategic Partnerships Development Manager, Gaming Publishers, YouTubeâŚMiniclip needs a Publishing ManagerâŚSupercell is hunting down a Head of Creative Studio (Marketing) for its London officeâŚAnd Tripledot is looking for a brave soul to become Studio Manager in its Berlin officeâŚ
Events and conferences
Game Developer Conference, San Francisco - 9th-13th March
PAX East, Boston - 26th-29th March
London Games Festival, London - 13th-19th April
Games for Change Summit, London - 15th April
gamescom Latam, SĂŁo Paulo - 29th April - 3rd May
Games of the week
PokĂŠmon Pokopia - As near to a dead cert money-printing life simulation game from the pocket monster purveyors lands on Switch 2 today.
Marathon - Bungie really hopes that it isnât a sprint for its newly released, but relatively troubled, extraction shooter.
Slay the Spire 2 - Sequel to one of my favourite games enters Early Access on SteamâŚjust days before I board a long-haul flight? Delightfully devilish, Mega Crit Games.
Before you goâŚ
How do you win The Traitors television show? Play video games, of course.
NME has an interview with the winner of the Irish iteration of everyoneâs popular backstabbing series, who claimed that a lockdown love of Among Us battle hardened them for reality show success.
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