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英国推出《 2020年电子游戏健康与战略法案》!|出海英国游戏岛群第75期

2020-02-07 00:36:29

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1月20日,Alverthorpe的Brooke勋爵向上议院提交了一项法案,要求国务卿制定和发布健康与福祉策略,并提供有关视频游戏的健康建议。

 

尽管该法案仍处于初期阶段,但它仍然是英国如何考虑游戏对健康的影响的有趣指示。

 

巧合的是,该法案是在信息专员办公室发布其“年龄适当设计:在线服务行为准则”的同一周发布的。该规范旨在帮助保护儿童及其在数字经济中的个人数据的使用,并特别引用在线游戏。

 

卫生和监管部门对视频游戏领域(尤其是与儿童有关的领域)日益增长的兴趣不足为奇。 2018年,世界卫生组织修订了《国际疾病分类》,将“游戏障碍”列为精神疾病。加上去年的统计数据,表明英国视频游戏产业的价值为38.6亿英镑,超过视频和音乐产业的总和,这表明人们对该领域及其监管的必要性有了进一步的了解。

 

账单

 

如果获得通过,该法案规定国务卿必须发布视频游戏的健康和福祉策略,其中包括:

 

关于视频游戏对儿童和青少年的正面和负面心理,身体和社会经济影响的学术和医学研究发现

政府打算如何减轻这些负面影响并强调积极影响的十年计划

由美国国立卫生研究院,视频游戏产业和其他适当机构进行的研究,涉及上述的正面和负面影响,以及可以减轻任何负面影响的视频游戏开发方法

该策略发布后,必须考虑该策略的信息和研究结果,发布健康建议,以帮助游戏玩家将遭受游戏不利影响的风险降至最低,并最大程度地发挥有益效果。

 

评论

 

令人鼓舞的是,该法案对视频游戏的潜在优势以及潜在弊端给予了同等的重视。

 

“玩家”过时的消极刻板印象集中在将游戏视为一种反社会活动,即一个人在孤独的环境中玩游戏。重要的是,该策略和研究还应考虑许多非游戏者可能看不到的游戏的积极方面。如果您跳入任何流行的视频游戏流(请参阅twitch.tv或mixer.com),就会发现成千上万的游戏玩家相互之间积极互动,并与流媒体播放他或她的艺人互动。

 

游戏已经发展成为一种合作活动,可以建立新的友谊并帮助保持远距离的关系。最近,有一位同事找我,寻求有关购买游戏机的建议,以使他能够轻松地与他的儿子在大学里保持定期联系并在游戏中“闲逛”。

 

但这并不是说游戏不会对健康产生负面影响。例如,在许多流行的视频游戏中,使用战利品盒(一种在游戏中购买的游戏,它可以使玩家获得获得某些奖励的随机机会)已引起国际关注,类似于赌博。就在上周,NHS精神卫生主管克莱尔·默多克(Claire Murdoch)呼吁禁止使用虚拟战利品盒子,“这通过让孩子们赌博来使孩子成瘾”。

 

此外,英国互动娱乐协会(UK Interactive Entertainment Association)今年还启动了“ Get Smart About PLAY”活动,鼓励父母使用管理屏幕时间和游戏内购买的工具。但是,游戏的弊端往往比其好处更能吸引媒体关注,如果您不积极参与这一领域,那么,收益当然很难被意识到。

 

因此,重要的是,国务卿提出的任何战略和建议都必须兼顾两者,并考虑直接参与博彩业者的观点,而不仅仅是研究人员和卫生专业人员从远处观察博彩业。

 

开发和出版

 

在制定战略和建议时,该法案要求“国务卿必须咨询他或她认为合适的人”,并且必须包括这些人的名单。选择的人员对于确定游戏社区对策略的反应以及从中得出的健康建议至关重要。

 

如上所述,似乎很显然相关研究人员和医学顾问将被包括在该列表中。

 

但是,有趣的是,国务卿是否也会咨询博彩业专业人士。视频游戏开发商和发行商对游戏开发过程具有重要的见解,这样做时要考虑到偏见,并掌握与儿童使用游戏和购买游戏有关的重要数据。电子游戏新闻工作者可以洞悉流行游戏的趋势,并了解最吸引游戏玩家的因素。也许最重要的是,还应咨询专业播放器,流媒体和内容创建者,因为它们与该策略和建议旨在保护的个人(包括儿童)直接相关并每天与之互动。

 

该法案要求以国务卿认为适当的方式发布建议,以提请电子游戏用户注意。一个简单的在线书面指南不太可能引起游戏界的注意。在视频游戏盒内放一本简短的小册子是直接针对许多游戏玩家的简便方法,但是随着数字购买和移动游戏的增多,这种方法会错过很大一部分社区。

 

取而代之或另外,可能会要求视频游戏发行商每次玩家开始游戏内交易(如购买战利品盒时)时提供简短的弹出式健康建议通知。更好的是,可以将具有流行游戏个性的短视频广告形式的建议放在游戏流或Twitter和YouTube广告中。几乎可以肯定,这会吸引年轻的游戏玩家对专业游戏玩家和彩带的关注。

 

ICO的在线服务行为准则

 

ICO的《行为准则》旨在保护数字世界中的儿童,以便为他们提供学习,探索和娱乐的安全空间(专员伊丽莎白·德纳姆(Elizabeth Denham)在其序言中指出)。 《守则》所适用的在线服务特别包括“在线游戏”,《守则》标准5要求可能被儿童访问的信息社会服务不得以已证明不利于其健康的方式使用儿童的个人数据。或违反行业行为准则,其他法规规定或政府建议的行为。

 

如上所述,游戏开发者拥有与玩家的游戏内购买,视频游戏的使用和游戏习惯有关的大量数据。这些数据和数据趋势将使游戏开发者通过各种策略来提高其视频游戏的吸引力,这些策略可用于扩展用户参与度并增加玩家进行游戏内购买的机会。该规范要求开发人员在使用其个人数据支持此类功能时,应仔细考虑对儿童的影响,并声明他们应:

 

避免以诱使儿童保持互动的方式使用个人数据,例如提供个性化的游戏优势(基于对单个用户个人数据的使用),以换取长时间玩耍

提供继续游戏或以其他方式中立参与游戏的选项,而不建议孩子如果不这样做会输掉比赛

避免使用会自动使用个人数据的功能,而不是要求儿童主动选择是否要以这种方式度过时间(这些功能称为数据驱动的自动播放功能)

引入诸如暂停按钮之类的机制,使孩子们可以随时休息而不会失去游戏进度,或者提供适合年龄的内容来支持有意识地选择休息。

进一步评论

 

显然,视频游戏产业发展迅速。不幸的是,监管机构对行业的了解以及相应的监管措施有些滞后。

 

游戏人群不再只是孩子独自在卧室里玩基于故事的游戏。它融合了来自世界各地的成年人和儿童一起玩游戏,并参与了游戏,流媒体服务以及Reddit,Discord和Twitter等平台上存在的社区。

 

游戏社区可以提供极大的支持,并可以带来各种精神,社会甚至经济利益(与英国少年Jaden'Wolfiez'Ashman交谈,他去年在Fortnite世界杯上赢得了将近100万英镑的奖金)。

 

但是,这种演变肯定会给儿童(坦率地说,某些成年人)的健康和福祉带来风险,现在需要赶上法规。

 

视频游戏开发和发行公司是受利润驱动的公司实体,在涉及内容消费者的直接和持续参与的行业中,应为儿童提供更多保护。 GDPR和《 2018年数据保护法》的实施以及现在ICO的重点工作守则表明,已经在朝正确的方向采取措施,以防止滥用儿童的个人数据。

 

如果布鲁克勋爵提出的提议该战略的法案在其余阶段得以通过,则更多的研究和由此产生的建议将朝正确方向迈出的又一步,可以加深了解和适当监管。

 

但是,至关重要的是,必须与广泛的行业专家进行研究,制定策略和提供建议,这些专业人员必须从内部了解行业,并且能够从外部客观地观察行业。

 

人们希望结果能够显示并帮助扩大游戏及其所建立社区的许多重大利益,同时减少(如果不能消除)对儿童及其相关“游戏”污名的任何不利风险。



英国游戏主题活动分享报名

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The UK’s Video Gaming Health and Wellbeing Strategy Bill 2020

 

On 20 January, Lord Brooke of Alverthorpe presented a Bill to the House of Lords for the Secretary of State to develop and publish a health and wellbeing strategy with health advice, specifically related to video gaming.

 

Although the Bill is still in its early stages, it remains an interesting indication of how health effects of gaming are being considered in the UK.

 

Coincidentally, the Bill has been published in the same week that the Information Commissioner’s Office published its ‘Age Appropriate Design: a code of practice for online services’. This Code is designed to help protect children and the use of their personal data within the digital economy and specifically references online games.

 

The increased interest from the health and regulatory sectors in the video games space, particularly in relation to children, is of no surprise. In 2018, the World Health Organization revised its International Classification of Diseases to include ‘gaming disorder’ as a mental health disorder. This, combined with statistics last year that showed the UK video games sector was valued at £3.86bn – more than video and music industries combined – shows an increased understanding of the sector and how regulation of it should be a necessity.

 

The Bill

 

If passed, the Bill provides that the Secretary of State must publish a video gaming health and wellbeing strategy including:

 

findings from academic and medical research on both the positive and negative mental, physical and socio-economic effects of video gaming on children and adolescents

a ten-year plan for how the Government intends to mitigate these negative effects and accentuate the positives

research to be undertaken by the National Institute for Health Research, the video gaming industry and other appropriate bodies into the aforementioned positive and negative effects as well as video game development methods that could alleviate any negative effects

Following publication of the strategy, health advice must be published, taking into account the information and research findings from the strategy, with the aim of assisting gamers to minimise the risk of experiencing adverse effects of gaming and maximising the beneficial effects.

 

Comment

 

It is encouraging to see that the Bill gives equal weight to the potential advantages, as well as the potential downsides, of video gaming.

 

The outdated negative stereotype of ‘gamers’ focuses on a perception of gaming as an anti-social activity with one individual playing in a solitary environment. It is important that the strategy and research also takes into account the positive aspects of gaming that many non-gamers may not see. If you pop into any popular video game stream (see twitch.tv or mixer.com), you’ll find thousands of gamers actively interacting with each other and engaging with an entertainer streaming his or her play.

 

Gaming has evolved into a cooperative activity that can build new friendships and help maintain relationships at distance. I was recently approached by a colleague looking for advice on purchasing a gaming console to enable him to easily maintain regular contact and ‘hang out’ in-game with his son at university.

 

That is not to say that there aren’t also negative health impacts of gaming. For example, the use of loot boxes (an in-game purchase that allows a player to obtain a randomised chance of winning certain rewards) in many popular video games has drawn international attention for being akin to gambling. Just last week, the NHS mental health director, Claire Murdoch, called for a ban on virtual loot boxes which are “setting kids up for addiction by teaching them to gamble”.

 

Further, the UK Interactive Entertainment Association has launched its Get Smart About PLAY campaign this year, encouraging parents to use tools that manage screen time and in-game purchases. Nevertheless, the downsides of gaming tend to attract more press attention than the benefits, which admittedly are harder to perceive if you are not actively involved in the sector.

 

Therefore, it is important that any strategy and advice proposed by the Secretary of State balances both and takes into account the views of those directly involved in gaming, not just researchers and health professionals observing it from afar.

 

Development and publication

 

In developing both the strategy and the advice, the Bill requires that “the Secretary of State must consult persons he or she considers appropriate” and a list of those persons must be included. The persons chosen will be important in determining how the gaming community reacts to the strategy and the health advice that develops from it.

 

As noted above, it seems obvious that relevant researchers and medical consultants would be included in that list.

 

However, it would be interesting to see whether the Secretary of State would consult gaming industry professionals too. Video game developers and publishers have important insights into the process of developing games, the health considerations taken into account when doing so, and hold vital data in relation to the use of their games by children and in-game purchases. Video game journalists have insights into trends in popular games and an understanding of what appeals most to gamers. Perhaps most importantly, professional players, streamers and content creators should also be consulted as they directly relate to and engage daily with those individuals, including children, that the strategy and advice are aiming to protect.

 

The Bill requires that the advice be published in a way that the Secretary of State considers appropriate for bringing it to the attention of users of video games. A simple online written guide would be unlikely to grab and hold the attention of the gaming community. A short pamphlet inside video game boxes would be an easy way to directly target many gamers, but with the increase in digital purchases and mobile gaming, such a method would miss a large proportion of the community.

 

Instead, or in addition, video game publishers could be required to provide short, pop-up health advice notices each time a player commences an in-game transaction such as a loot box purchase. Better yet, advice in the form of short video advertisements featuring popular gaming personalities could be placed in gaming streams or Twitter and YouTube adverts. This would almost certainly attract the undivided attention of young gamers that look up to professional gamers and streamers.

 

The ICO’s code of practice for online services

 

The ICO’s Code of Practice aims to protect children within the digital world in order to give them a safe space to learn, explore and play (states the Commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, in the foreword to it). The online services to which the Code applies specifically includes ‘online games’, and code standard five requires that information society services that are likely to be accessed by children must not use children’s personal data in ways that have been shown to be detrimental to their wellbeing or that go against industry codes of practice, other regulatory provisions or Government advice.

 

As noted above, game developers hold vast amounts of data relating to players’ in-game purchases, use of video games and playing habits. This data and the data trends will inform game developers in making their video games more compelling through various strategies used to extend user engagement and to increase the chances of players making in-game purchases. The Code requires that developers carefully consider the impact on children if using their personal data to support such features, and state that they should:

 

avoid using personal data in a way that incentivises children to stay engaged, such as offering personalised in-game advantages (based on use of the individual user’s personal data) in return for extended play

present options to continue playing or otherwise engaging with the game neutrally without suggesting that children will lose out if they don’t

avoid features which use personal data to automatically extend use instead of requiring children to make an active choice about whether they want to spend their time in this way (known as data-driven auto-play features)

introduce mechanisms such as pause buttons that allow children to take a break at any time without losing their progress in a game, or provide age-appropriate content to support conscious choices about taking breaks.

Further comment

 

It is clear that the video games industry has developed rapidly. Unfortunately, understanding of the sector by regulators, and consequently appropriate regulation, has somewhat lagged behind.

 

The gaming population is no longer just children playing story-based games alone in their bedrooms. It is a combination of adults and children from all across the world playing games together and engaging in communities that exist in-game, on streaming services, and on platforms such as Reddit, Discord and Twitter.

 

Gaming communities can be fantastically supportive and can have various mental, social and even economic benefits (speak to British teenager, Jaden ‘Wolfiez’ Ashman, who won just under £1m competing in the Fortnite World Cup last year).

 

However, there are certainly risks to children’s (and frankly some adult’s) health and wellbeing that come as a consequence of this evolution, and regulation now needs to catch up.

 

Video game development and publishing companies are corporate entities driven by profit-making, and in a sector that involves direct and ongoing engagement with content consumers greater protections for children should be put in place. The implementation of the GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018, and now a focused Code of Practice from the ICO, shows that steps are already being taken in the right direction to prevent the misuse of children’s personal data.

 

If the Bill presented by Lord Brooke proposing the strategy passes through the remainder of the stages, increased research and resulting advice would be another step in the right direction towards greater understanding and appropriate regulation.

 

However, it is essential that the research, strategy and advice are undertaken in consultation with a broad range of industry professionals that understand the industry from the inside as well as those able to observe it objectively from the outside.

 

One would hope that the results would show and help to amplify the many significant benefits that come from gaming and the communities that it builds, whilst simultaneously reducing (if not removing) any adverse risks to children and the associated ‘gamer’ stigma.

 


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