Germany's Youth Protection Authorities Praise Dialog With Valve

The announcement by Steam that it would not display games without an age rating to German users from mid-November is being described by the BzKJ as an ‘important step’. The youth protection authorities describe the exchange with Steam as constructive and solution-oriented.

It is an unusual event in every respect. After Steam recently announced that from 15 November, German users would only be shown games that had an age rating, the Bundeszentrale für Kinder- und Jugendmedienschutz (BzKJ; German Federal Centre for the Protection of Children and Young People in the Media) has now also commented this issue:

"What has long been good practice in the analogue retail sector also applies in the digital space from 2021. Age rating symbols provide young people and their parents with guidance when choosing games. It is important that the platforms used by children and young people in particular take their responsibility for the protection of minors seriously", Sebastian Gutknecht, Director of BzKJ said.

The BzKJ had reviewed the age rating process on Steam and called for adjustments. However, the process was apparently much more cooperative than one might expect from the outside. In the press statement, the BzKJ explained that the exchange with Steam had been "constructive and solution-oriented from the start".

Last year, a large proportion of the games that had been released in Germany since the new law came into force had already been labelled. The BzKJ also describes the labelling of the back catalogue as a "particular challenge". Steam is consistently implementing the legal requirements here by removing unlabelled games in Germany from the platform. However, it is still possible to label them retrospectively, the BzKJ emphasises.

Michael Terhörst, who heads the Stelle zur Durchsetzung von Kinderrechten in digitalen Diensten (KidD; office for the enforcement of children's rights in digital services), which was set up in May, has also praised the cooperation with Steam: "The cooperation with Valve shows that the concept of dialogic regulation is effective. The KidD monitors the implementation of age rating on the platforms and continues to focus on cooperative collaboration."

Now that Steam has set a positive example, it can be assumed that the BzKJ and the KidD will have a closer look at all other gaming services. This is likely to apply in particular to Apple's App Store, because Apple has so far relied on an own age rating procedure. Google, Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, Meta, Pico, Epic and Amazon (Luna), on the other hand, use the labelling of the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC), of which the Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle (USK; the German Entertainment Software Self-Regulation Body) is a founding member. The USK is also responsible for the legal labelling of retail games in Germany and is recognised as such.