December 16, 2019

TIGA has published a set of voluntary Principles for Safeguarding Players (the Principles). TIGA has devised the Principles for games businesses to follow when operating games in the UK in order to safeguard players. TIGA is inviting games businesses to provide feedback on the draft Principles before 20 January 2020.

The Principles have been designed to be proportionate, reflecting the fact that a large multimillion pound games business operating a widely used online game will be able to do much more than a small business operating a niche game.

TIGA’s five Principles are as follows:

• protecting children: take particular care in the design of games that are likely to appeal to children and provide the necessary tools and information about content for parents and guardians to enable them to manage all aspects of their children’s enjoyment of games;
• treating consumers fairly: deal with players as consumers in a fair manner at all times, in addition to complying with all relevant marketing, advertising and consumer protection law;
• safeguarding online communities: make every effort to ensure that online communities and interactions are safe and do not expose players to harm;
• respecting personal data: take appropriate and proportionate measures to fulfil the seven data protection principles under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and comply with all other relevant data protection laws to ensure that players’ rights to personal data privacy are respected; and
• spending and time management: enable players to manage the amount of time and money spent on games through appropriate design and proportionate measures.

The TIGA Principles are broad and high-level in scope. In order to assist games companies to comply with them, TIGA has also created a set of “Positive Practices” for each Principle.

Following the consultation, TIGA will review all feedback before formally publishing the first set of Principles for Safeguarding Players in February 2020. To access the Principles and Positive Practices, click here. To read TIGA’s press release in full, click here.