Josh Hawley, a United States Senator from Missouri, recently
announced plans to introduce a bill titled "The Protecting
Children from Abusive Games Act." The bill would, in essence,
make it illegal for games "played by minors" to include
loot boxes or pay-to-win microtransactions.
How exactly the bill would achieve this is unclear as there is
currently no draft of the bill, but only a bill outline (available
here). The outline of the bill suggests that
the game's subject matter, visual content, and other indicators
would be the determining factors when reviewing games to see if
they are targeted to minors. These game characteristics are similar
to those used to determine the applicability of the Children's
Online Privacy Protection Act ("COPPA").
