Report from DW
In Brief – Online gaming platforms Roblox, Minecraft, Fortnite, and Steam have been directed by Australia’s eSafety Commissioner to explain how they address risks to young users such as child grooming and the spread of extremist content. The regulator, who said that 9 in 10 Australian children aged 8-to-17 engage in online gaming, called the platforms “black boxes” that require much greater transparency. Law enforcement officials have warned that encrypted messaging features can facilitate initial contact between predators and minors and that extremist groups use the platforms to target young users for radicalization. The notices compel the companies to provide detailed reports on safety measures and enforcement activities to help regulators assess whether the platforms are upholding their own policies and their legal obligations.
Context – Australia’s newly instituted 16-year-old age limit to hold social media accounts is the world’s highest profile. When the regulator designated the covered platforms, she noted that the law applies to platforms when their “sole or a significant purpose is to enable online social interaction” and therefore the top gaming platforms were not designated despite having many social features. Twitch, a live-streaming platform that emerged primarily with video-game related content but now features a wide range of material, was, on the other hand, a late edition to the roster of Facebook, Instagram, Kick, Reddit, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X and YouTube. Online age limits and related verification is expanding globally along a rubric of porn, social media, and game sites with social features. Australia does not just apply age checks to social media, its Online Safety Act limits access by minors to a range of harmful but legal online content, including porn, resulting in even search engines such as Google and Bing now verifying ages. The UK online safety regulator has pushed gaming sites to institute age verification to better enforce age rules and Roblox has been sued by several US state attorneys general over the same type of allegations leveled by the Australian regulator.