The United Kingdom is looking to implement a number of new laws that aim to ensure that, in the words of Digital Secretary Matt Hancock, "the UK is the safest place in the world to be online."
Video games were listed among the many online spaces being scrutinized by the United Kingdom government ahead of new laws that would aim to make the internet and social media safer for UK citizens.
The government has since released a response to an earlier investigative green paper, outlining the areas online video games and other online spaces succeed or need improvement in regards to online safety.
The discussion about online video games starts on page 49 of the 75-page PDF released this week, and notes that the industry has made strides for online safety on its own. The UK trade body for the game industry, Ukie, outlined many of those individual decisions like increased attention from major game industry console manufacturers on parental controls, ongoing industry-led discussions on how to best handle unsavory behavior in online games, and commitments to increasing awareness of ratings classifications material like the UK’s PEGI game rating system.
The government response letter explains that the governing body plans to work with Ukie and the UK Council for Child Internet Safety to “tackle ongoing issues such as sexism and build our understanding in relation to how this can be most effectively tackled, examine emerging issues related to augmented reality and other new types of gaming, and consider the evidence relating to how interactive content can support wellbeing and resilience.”