Is the software to blame for video gaming disorder?

Abstract

With over 3 billion active players, the video gaming industry is one of the most lucrative in the world, outperforming the film and music industries combined. Even though playing video games has many favourable effects on players, excessive and careless game playing outweighs these benefits, with numerous negative repercussions on players' physical and mental health, social and professional activities, as well as their financial status. The purpose of this paper is to examine, from a legal standpoint, the ways in which video games can impact players' health, particularly their mental health, as well as the legislative "reactions" at the European Union level that may offer a solution regarding liability for harms inflicted on video game players, particularly those who suffer from video gaming disorder. In the International Classification of Diseases 11th Revision ICD-11, gaming disorder is defined as “a pattern of gaming behaviour ('digital-gaming' or 'video-gaming') characterized by impaired control over gaming, increasing priority given to gaming over other activities to the extent that gaming takes precedence over other interests and daily activities, and continuation or escalation of gaming despite the occurrence of negative consequences”. Video games, as software and software-as-a-service/game-as-a-service, fall under the new European Directive on Product Liability (Directive (EU) 2024/2853) and the Artificial Intelligence Act.