A bill has been proposed in Germany to protect children and adolescents from aggressive advertising in mobile games

The proposed bill calls illegal advertising that rewards a player for viewing it (for example, in-game rewards) or links a gaming account with third-party sites. The current version of the Interstate Agreement does not provide for a ban on rewarded advertising.

In addition, the Bavarian project focuses on direct advertising appeals to minors. The current agreement prohibits direct appeals to minors with the wording “Try it and you!”, “Get a new version!”, “Get 20 loot boxes for €5”, etc. The usual advertising banners, where the product is simply depicted and the price tag is indicated, are not affected.

The current provisions of the treaty are considered too flexible. Now they look like this:

• advertising (in online games, mobile games and applications) should not cause physical or moral damage to children and adolescents, should not contain direct calls to purchase or rent goods or services aimed at children and adolescents, as well as exploit their inexperience and gullibility;
• advertising (in online games, mobile games and applications), which is aimed at children and adolescents, should not harm them and exploit their inexperience.

In Germany, there is a debate on whether direct appeals in mobile advertising are always aimed directly at adults. On the one hand, children and teenagers can play in projects intended for an adult audience, which means that the aggressive advertising contained inside with direct appeal can affect them as well. On the other hand, the wording “including” leaves the possibility for an excessively free interpretation of the contract, and if the advertisement does not contain a specific appeal to minors, it can be considered permitted.

As it stands, the Interstate Agreement has been in force since 2005, writes Gamesindustry.biz . Bavaria insists on tightening the provisions. Children and teenagers, according to the authors of the project, are inexperienced and gullible by default. Advertising can be harmful to them, even if it is not addressed directly to them. Bavarian officials propose to evaluate the advertising offer and the monetization business model on a case-by-case basis in order to understand whether advertising harms the younger generation.

The bill of Bavaria has not yet been adopted, but the process of its internal coordination is almost complete. Its adoption is predicted by the lawyer of the firm Baker McKenzie Sebastian Schwiddessen (Sebastian Schwiddessen). He also calls the bill “a reaction to the ongoing debate in Germany about monetization and loot boxes.”

Also on the topic:

• Germany has allocated €50 million for a fund for game developersGoogle proposed to implement rewarded advertising “out of the box”