Lithuanian MPs seek to restrict minors’ access to video game loot boxes

Lithuanian lawmakers have proposed restricting minors’ access to paid random-reward mechanisms in video games known as loot boxes, LRT reports. The amendments, initiated by conservative MPs, would classify the mechanisms as information that can negatively affect minors’ development.

Game developers say implementing the proposed restrictions would be technically difficult.

Loot boxes are virtual chests that players can open directly or indirectly by paying money, receiving a virtual item or reward. Psychologists compare them to Kinder Surprise eggs because buyers know they will receive a toy but do not know which one.

Oleg Mackevičius, a psychologist and specialist at the Gambling Supervisory Authority, said the mechanism can encourage people to repeat the action because they do not know whether they will receive the result they want. Repeating it requires money.

According to psychologists, research shows a connection between participation in loot-box trading and opening and a higher likelihood of developing problem gambling. Inga Dapkūnaitė, a representative of a support group for relatives of gamblers, said some families had seen parents’ bank accounts emptied after children gained access to them.

Conservative MPs Daiva Ulbinaitė and Mindaugas Lingė are proposing that loot boxes first be defined in law and classified as harmful information for minors. They want children under 18 to be barred from buying loot boxes, while game producers and distributors would have to introduce age verification so that such games could be purchased only by adults.

Lingė said the mechanisms had not been regulated and therefore had not been subject to control. Ulbinaitė said one in four teenagers had already gambled for money, which she said indicated that gambling addiction was affecting an increasing number of children.

Some members of the governing coalition also support the proposal. Social Democratic MP Saulius Čaplinskas said action should be taken before the problem affected more children. He cited the example of 21,000 adults in Lithuania who had asked to be restricted from gambling and entering gambling venues.

Game developers agree that restricting access is morally justified but say it would be difficult to implement. Ada Mockutė-Jaime, marketing director at Nordcurrent, said mobile games containing loot boxes could be downloaded through the Google Play Store or Apple App Store, where developers could not determine users’ ages.

She pointed to Belgium, where a similar model is already in place. According to Mockutė-Jaime, major companies there stopped sales altogether because platforms could not guarantee users’ ages, meaning the games were made unavailable to everyone rather than only to minors.