Former football pro Rio Ferdinand is fronting a new campaign designed to encourage parents to turn on console family controls.
The video game industry has come under fire from the UK government in recent years as the conversation around loot boxes, spending on microtransactions and video game addiction has intensified.
During a meeting in June 2019, representatives from Epic and EA struggled to answer questions from MPs about how children play Fortnite and FIFA and the systems put in place to protect them.
In the meeting with the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, topics of discussion included play time, which the Epic rep said he had no idea about and the EA rep said EA doesn’t track; duty of care to players, which, bafflingly, EA and Epic seemed to argue against; the potential for addiction and the World Health Organisation’s recent high-profile classification of gaming disorder as a disease, which, frustratingly, EA and Epic failed to acknowledge; and loot boxes. Kerry Hopkins from Electronic Arts stepped in to say: “we don’t call them loot boxes – we call them surprise mechanics.”
The industry is under intense scrutiny, then. So, over to the UK Interactive Entertainment Association (UKIE), which represents the video game publishing industry in the UK. It’s launched a new Get Smart About P.L.A.Y. campaign to encourage more parents and carers to use tools that manage screen time and in-game purchases on consoles.