UK games industry unveils 11-point plan to self-regulate around loot boxes, increase transparency, and keep them away from kids

pcgamer.com:

Almost a year to the day after the UK Government's loot box inquiry asked the country's games industry to deal with people's concerns about kids buying loot boxes, the UK games industry trade association UKIE has agreed on a plan to do it. It's issued a set of 11 «Industry Principles» that it swears will «improve protections for all players» and make the whole loot box buying process more transparent and less accessible to kids.

Although they were unveiled with the participation of UK Minister for Creative Industries John Whittingdale, UKIE's 11 principles are a private sector initiative: An attempt to corral the nation's games companies into following a set of best practices that should obviate the need for the state to step in and start banning things (if indeed that was ever a risk: The current government expressed its reluctance to interfere with the games industry in such a way last year).

You can find all 11 of the new principles below, but they take some cues from how Asian governments such as Japan and South Korea have addressed the issue, particularly the focus on transparent odds, with the headline items pertaining to kids' access to loot boxes and surfacing info about probabilities. Number one on UKIE's list of loot box commandments is the provision of «technological controls to effectively restrict anyone under the age of 18 from acquiring a Loot Box, without the consent or knowledge of a parent, carer or guardian.» 

Awareness of those controls, meanwhile, will be spread to «players, parents, carers and guardians through regular communications» that kick off with a public awareness campaign this month. The principles also mandate that games make it clear when they contain loot boxes prior to purchase, so that