Hearing squeaky little voices in your online games may be a thing of the past, at least in the United Kingdom. As the British government continues to take steps to combat the effects of the internet on young people, one possible inclusion in the Online Safety Act would ban children from using voice chat in online games like Fortnite and Roblox to talk to strangers.
Concerns about the safety of children online have been a big issue over the last few years, and the UK government has already introduced age verification checks on services like Discord in an attempt to stop kids from using them to speak to strangers. Now, it’s ready to go one step further, banning children from using in-game voice chat in an attempt to safeguard them from strangers.
First reported by The Sunday Times, Online Safety Minister Kanishka Narayan said he would consider imposing these restrictions as part of a wider social media ban aimed at keeping teenagers off the platforms. While the UK is taking inspiration from Australia and its ban on social media for under-16s, its legislation doesn’t include gaming, so this move would be the first of its kind.
The idea of this ban seems to have come from Narayan’s visit to Australia, where he says he heard reports of strangers contacting children through gaming platforms, although he didn’t go as far as naming which games they were.
As reported by Metro, England’s Children’s Commissioner Rachel de Souza has also backed the idea, telling Sky News that “Boys often aren’t on social media. They’re often spending three or four hours a day gaming. And those games often have features that allow a 55-year-old in Arizona to come in and speak to a nine-year-old.”
There’s currently no word on how this would be implemented, but the government is clearly giving the idea a lot of thought. The Online Safety Act already exists, so it wouldn’t require brand-new legislation but rather additions to existing laws, and would only apply to those living in the United Kingdom. There’s also no word on what punishments would be for companies and platforms that didn’t follow these rules, but the UK government has been quick to fine those who have already broken the Online Safety Act, so I would expect similar action if this goes through.
