"More Fun, More Risk? Digital Games as a Challenge for the Protection of Minors

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“It is only with the help of scholarly research and the experience of practitioners that the protection of young people can be brought forward sensibly, especially when it involves new media like games.” That was the central message delivered by Dr. Wolfgang Schulz, director of the Hans-Bredow-Institute at the European Specialists’ Conference „More Fun, More Risk? Digital Games as a Challenge for the Protection of Minors", held on 16./17. October in Berlin.

The Hans-Bredow-Institute organised this conference in cooperation with the Federal Ministry of Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMFSFJ) and with the support of the federal states’ ministries for young people and the Federal Association for the Protection of Children and Youth (BAJ) and succeeded in bringing together more than 160 experts from 14 countries, who discussed the results of current research, regulatory experiences and future challenges in the area of the protection of young people with respect to video and computer games.

In company with the member of the European parliament and president of the Audiovisual Policy Intergroup, Ruth Hieronymi, of the Minister for Intergenerational Affairs, Family, Women and Integration of the state of Northrhine-Westfalia, Armin Laschet and the Head of Ministerial Department, Dr. Annette Niederfranke, BMFSFJ, numerous representatives of agencies for self-regulation, such as the USK (Entertainment Software Voluntary Monitoring Board), the FSK (Voluntary Film Fontrol Board and the PEGI (Pan-European Game Information), of federal and state ministries, of state regulatory authorities and the KJM (Commission for the Protection of Minors in the Media) participated in the symposium. Among the speakers were European academics from the disciplines of Social Science, Psychology, Law, Political Science and Media Paedagogy.

Alongside regulatory questions current insights from effects research, for instance, in relation to violence in video and computer games, are central to the discussion. A further focus in the event centred on problems resulting from the excessive use of online games.

The conference consistently prosecutes the instant-action programme, as presented by the Federal Minister for Young People, Ursula von der Leyen and the Minister for Young People of the State of Northrhine-Westfalia, Armin Laschet, for effectively protecting children and young people from predominantly violent video and computer games and for the first time it made an international and interdisciplinary transfer of research results, assessments and experiences possible between research and praxis.

The organisers intend the symposium to form the basis for a lasting exchange of experience within Europe on protecting young people in respect of video and computer games and in this way to help in regularly adapting the law for the protection of young people against harmful media to the demands made on it.

Results of the Specialists’ Symposium “More Fun, More Risk?”

Amidst a large number of individual results, the Hans-Bredow-Institute has discerned some more general results, which are documented as follows:

  • There already exist numerous studies on the potential and the risks in using computer games. However, networking within academe seems comparatively sparse. A better international or European networking seems lacking here, as do internationally comparable bodies of data and a systematic survey of the state of it.
  • The fact that many research results are only published in the respective national language restricts the exchange of experiences and insights. Translating appropriate studies into English as well as systematic exchanges in experts’ forums should overcome this obstacle and in this way help to establish a strong European research community.
  • Excessive use of media and computer games is a significant topic deserving closer attention in future. At present, the discussion concentrates very firmly on the point where excessive behaviour should be labelled “addiction” or “dependence”. Phenomena of dependency play an important role, but have to be seen in context: gameplaying can enrich a person’s life, but also destroy it in other cases.
  • Regulation in the protection of young people and scholarly research on the use and effects of computer games have to be better networked. The question as to the individual context of effects misses the complexity of the phenomenon and often cannot produce the sort of answer that is directly applicable for monitoring them. Only the systematic conjunction of praxis and research can ensure a protection for young people which attends to new insights and makes research related to praxis possible. Support for foundational research as well as long-term studies would be desirable in this context. New research emphases should tackle the positive effects of screen games, the observation of the mechanics of games and the differentiated investigation of various interfaces.
  • Effective protection of young people from harmful media should include more active participants than previously: it ought not to be confined to regulatory agencies, publishers and the market. In this process, parents and schools should be considered equally with research. In addition, an optimal protection for young people should begin with the developmental stage of games and not wait until all the work on content is completed. That is why games developers are particularly significant, as they can configure the game from the beginning so that it does not threaten the development of certain age groups.
  • A constant central monitoring of social discourses, political debates and legal and sub-legal changes in the systems of regulation and in the classification practices in the area of the protection of young people from harmful media with respect to computer and video games could raise the transparency of developments, contribute to the understanding of the respective backgrounds in member states and make a better prognosis for developing the system possible.
  • An optimal protection for young people should offer parents and children more information as consumers, for instance, publicly accessible information about the reasons behind the age classification, (Model BBFC: “extended consumer information”)
  • Gameplayers could be included in the (self-) regulation, for instance as moderators or “scouts”. Concepts of this sort are already widespread (“Flagging”, “Community Courts”), or could be respectively built into games quickly and effectively. The higher the incidence of play for any individual, the more effectively the regulatory instruments influence the games world.
  • Germany has not integrated the European labelling system from the games industry, PEGI, into its system of protection for young people in respect of games, as the legislation protecting young people (JuSchG) already delivers a very high level of protection for them. Many other member states have integrated PEGI into their systems for protecting young people, albeit in various ways respectively and by means of initiatives with differing structures. All in all, all participants – representatives of PEGI, regulatory bodies in PEGI states and in Germany - have shown great willingness to cooperate within the system for protecting young people in respect of games.
  • Many games can only be played online or are open to modification via the internet. These “online games” throw up questions of protection for young people, which, however, are to an extent not specific to games and so have to be independently resolved – even if with games specialists participating. This includes, for instance, the question whether and how far a games-provider is responsible for the contents being generated on their platform by users. A problem typical for games is how far the know-how in classifying games – in Germany that of the USK in the framework of the legislation protecting young people (JuSchG) – and the age categorisation from the “offline world” can be combined with the regulatory structures for telemedia (the States’ Treaty on Protection of Young People from Harmful Media/KJM).