European Parliament votes to take action against loot boxes, gaming addiction, gold farming and more Commission will also set up a European Video Game Strategy to grow industry and a European video game award The European Parliament voted today to adopt a report calling for the European Commission to address several issues in the games industry that it believes will better protect consumers, especially young people.López made more than a dozen recommendations in her report, including a call for harmonised rules across the European Union's single market when providing clear information about games content, as well as systems that help parents understand and control how much time and money their children spend on games."We need to harmonise EU rules, ensuring strengthened consumer protection with a focus on minors" Adriana Maldonado López, MEP MEPs also voted to have the Commission analyse the impact of loot boxes and prompts to make in-game purchases, taking action if necessary, as well as investigating whether gold-farming can be linked to financial crimes and human rights abuses.“Our report highlights the positives of this pioneering industry, but also social risks we need to bear in mind, like the impact of gaming on mental health," said López when introducing her report to the plenary today.Consumer protection in online video games: a European single market approach The European Commission was asked: Age ratings and information - To assess how the PEGI system is being implemented in the different types of games available, and to consider enshrining it in EU law to make PEGI its Code of Conduct the mandatory age-rating system for all games in the single market - To support the promotion of public and private education and information campaigns directed at parents and caretakers to inform them of the tools in place, such as the PEGI app, and to encourage usage - To introduce common labels for information such as the recommended minimum age, a game's theme, in-game purchasing options, presence of pop-up advertising, and more Consumer protection - To develop a common European identity verification system to help check the age of players - To develop minimum standards on privacy preservation - To collect EU-wide data on the average time spent playing games, average in-game spending, socio-psychological effects, present a yearly report to Parliament on it - To assess the possibility of requiring providers of online games targeting minors to develop child impact assessments - To adopt, if needed, regulatory measures on games that allows players to create their own content in order to protect users, especially minors, from illegal practices Monetisation - To assess whether the current consumer law framework is sufficient to address all issues raised by loot boxes and in-game purchases."