The EU KIDS Act: What game developers need to know
The EU Commission proposed the KIDS Act to regulate online spaces, including games, with age restrictions and design limits for minors under 18, requiring parental controls and age verification methods.
The EU Commission published a draft for the proposed EU KIDS Act on September 17, targeting online spaces including games, AI companions, and app stores. The draft introduces broad restrictions on online features in games, such as login bonuses or penalties for inactive players, which could be prohibited for minors under 18. Exemptions apply to educational services and certain not-for-profit platforms, while disc-based games with no online modes are excluded. The rules would cover all online games sold in EU territories, raising compliance challenges for persistent-world designs.
The act mandates parental controls and age assurance solutions for online games, though with less strict requirements than for social networks. Games can use age estimation and privacy-preserving methods instead of a dedicated EU age verification system, provided they are accurate and non-discriminatory. Self-declaration alone is insufficient, and age signals from app stores can be passed to games with user consent. The draft also proposes a legally binding Code of Conduct for age ratings, building on the existing PEGI framework.
The KIDS Act includes provisions targeting AI companions and general conversational chatbots, requiring systems to avoid features that simulate interpersonal relationships likely to create emotional dependencies. AI systems must not use information from previous interactions with minors by default, except for safety reasons. Stricter rules apply to AI systems integrated into games on social networks or video-sharing platforms, including prohibitions on auto-activation and prominent display for minors.
The draft act raises questions about its interaction with national youth protection laws, such as Germany’s USK system, which may conflict with the EU’s proposed rules. The act also addresses monetisation transparency in recitals, referencing lootboxes and virtual currencies, though these provisions are not included in the operative text for games. The EU Commission’s internal discussions on these issues may continue as the lawmaking process progresses.