The Internal Market and Consumer Affairs Committee (IMCO) of the European Parliament has adopted by unanimity a report on the protection of consumers, especially minors, in the use of video games. The video gaming industry last year amounted to more than seven billion Euro, which is half that of the entire music market in Europe. The report focused on the adoption of EU-wide labelling rules for video games and on the creation of a voluntary code of conduct on interactive games targeted at children in order to prevent the sale of violent and harmful video games to minors, but didn’t call for further EU-wide legislation in this field.

Toine Manders, a Member of the European Parliament from the Netherlands, the rapporteur on the report, said: “Video games are in most cases not dangerous and can even contribute to the development of important skills. Member States should work closely together in strengthening the PEGI system and in cases when they consider a ban.” “PEGI” rates video games at a European level comparably to movies. The system already exists but not yet European-wide. This approach follows the liberal concept of more information instead of more legislation in order to match the risks of video games. Furthermore the video game industry is asked to advertise PEGI more actively and to increase the list of signatories