Pictured: Gacha items accessible to minors in Second Life's online Marketplace
If you're a developer or consumer of Second Life's incredibly popular gachas, keep your eye on this new bill introduced by US Senator Josh Hawley:
Senator Hawley’s legislation would apply new consumer protections to games played by minors including... Games with wider audiences whose developers knowingly allow minor players to engage in microtransactions. In such games, this bill would prohibit several forms of manipulative design:
Loot Boxes: Microtransactions offering randomized or partially randomized rewards to players.
The last point applying to SL gachas, especially if they're available to teens aged 16-17 playing Second Life. (And I doubt the Federal Trade Commission would entertain hairsplitting about Mature/Adult regions not accessible to teens.) This comes fairly close on the heels of the European Union also considering similar regulations.
Obviously Second Life with its relatively small user base would not be this bill's prime target:
As Kotaku reports, Senator Hawley cites Activision game Candy Crush as a major problem, and it would likely affect hit games like Overwatch, FIFA, and Apex Legends. Still, Second Life's out-sized reputation for having a huge virtual economy (the IRS has even specifically cited Second Life in its taxing policy) will put it on the US government's radar. The Federal Trade Commission itself has looked into the Second Life economy.
All that to one side, a bill is far from being a law, and Senator Hawley is a junior member of the Senate, and Congress might be somewhat distracted by, say, the impending impeachment of the president, to worry too much about virtual lootboxes any time soon.
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