Video Games: Regulation

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport written question – answered at on 20 October 2017.

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Photo of Ian Lavery Ian Lavery Co-National Campaign Coordinator, Shadow Minister (Cabinet Office), Party Chair, Labour Party

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the regulation of the video games industry.

Photo of Matthew Hancock Matthew Hancock The Minister of State, Department for Culture, Media and Sport

We are committed to protecting children from inappropriate content in video games. The supply of video games on physical media in the UK is regulated under the Video Recordings Act 1984. In 2012 the Government strengthened this law so that any such games must be referred to the VSC Rating Board for a Pegi age rating if they are unsuitable for children. A retailer convicted of supplying a game to someone not meeting the Pegi 12, 16 or 18 age requirement risks a fine or jail sentence. The Pegi ratings are also voluntarily applied by industry to many games and apps made available online.

On 11 October 2017 we published our Internet Safety Strategy Green Paper, setting out our plans to make the UK the safest place in the world to be online. This includes how we will work with online platforms, game publishers and game developers and with agencies such as the VSC Rating Board to continue to improve online safety in games.

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