Australia is looking to pass legislation that could have a major impact as to who has access to what video games and online services in the near future.
The country’s government is working on a plan to ban access to social media for anyone under the age of 16. While it’s targeted to social media, the new law could severely impact access to online video games and gaming networks.
The act doesn’t specifically call out online gaming services, the definition of what constitutes social media could allow for that implication. According to the Online Safety Act, social media service is defined as a an “electronic service” that meets these conditions:
- The sole or primary purpose of the service is to enable online social interaction between two or more end users
- The service allows end users to link to, or interact with, some or all of the other end users
- The service allows end users to post material on the service.
It hasn’t been confirmed that services like Xbox, Steam, PlayStation Network, Roblox, Fortnite, and others would be caught up in the litigation, it’s obvious that they could fall into the category based on the definition provided.
The enforcement of this new legislation wouldn’t begin for at least another year as traditional social media companies and any others involved work to create a way to enforce the limit on their platforms. According to the Australian government, the companies would be help responsible for underage users on their platform, not the end users themselves.
It’s worth nothing that Australia hasn’t specifically mentioned video games as being a part of the restrictions. It does say, however, that other conditions can be set to determine what qualifies as a “social media service”.
Nevertheless, this is a situation to keep an eye on, especially for those in Australia.
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