The daily login streak, the stranger who whispers you and the guild invite that lands unasked are all on a list the EU wants to ban for minors. On September 17 the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, adopted its draft KIDS Act, and one article is written for online games.
What Happened
The Commission's draft takes its bans on addictive design and unapproved contact and applies them, by name, to online games.
The proposal
- Adopted September 17. The Commission adopted the proposal on September 17, 2026 and published it as press release IP/26/1890.
- The name. KIDS stands for Keeping Internet Digital Spaces Accountable and Trustworthy.
- Who presented it. Ursula von der Leyen, the Commission's President, presented it with Henna Virkkunen, one of its Executive Vice-Presidents.
- One article for games. Article 15, titled "Obligations for providers of online games", takes rules written for platforms in Articles 9 and 12 and applies them to games.
- Social media ages. The Commission's post recommends no social media under 13 and no personal accounts under 15; those age lines are for social media, not games.
Virkkunen's own post adds the middle tier: 13 and 14 year olds could get mini accounts that their parents set up and oversee. Games get their own, simpler line in Article 15.
Engagement design
- No unprompted pings. A game could not send a minor a notification that the minor's own activity did not trigger.
- No streak penalties. Article 9(2)(d), imported by Article 15, bans rewarding play at set times or punishing a missed session with lost benefits.
- Streaks by name. The Commission's own FAQ lists "streak" mechanics that penalise a child for not returning every day among the banned designs.
incentivising engagement at regular times or with greater frequency, including through penalties or loss of benefits for failing to engage regularly or within specified time intervals
— Article 9(2)(d), EU KIDS Act proposal, EUR-Lex
Contact and groups
- Pre-approved contact only. Under Article 12(1), nobody may start direct contact with a minor who has not pre-approved it.
- Out of recommendations. Minors are left out of contact recommendations, the "people you may know" style suggestions.
- Groups need consent. A minor can only be added to a group with their explicit agreement.
- Guardian tools. Games must give guardians mandatory tools, and under Article 15(1)(d) players under 13 can only get in through them.
Spending
- Real-money prices. Recital 40, the preamble text that explains what the law intends, calls for virtual currencies to show their real-money value.
- Random rewards. The same recital calls for protection from "variable reward systems", rewards whose contents are left to chance.
Where It Stands
None of this is law yet: the draft still has to pass the two bodies that write EU law.
- Still a draft. The European Parliament and the Council, the body of national governments, must negotiate and adopt it before it becomes law.
- Six-month runway. Once it enters into force, the Regulation would apply six months later.
- National supervisors. National authorities would supervise games that are not online platforms.
- Fines to 6%. Penalties can reach 6% of a company's worldwide annual turnover.
What This Means for the Riot MMO
The engagement and social tools MMOs run on are the features Article 15 names, and Riot's MMO will likely launch under whatever version passes.
- No launch date. Riot has set no date, and engineer Orlando Salvatore called the cancellation talk fake news; whatever this draft becomes is likely its rulebook.
- Daily loops. Login calendars, daily quests and "you missed a day" penalties are the genre's habits, and the ban on punishing missed sessions covers them for EU minors.
- Social plumbing. Whispers, guild invites and group-finder suggestions are exactly the contact and group features Article 12(1) restricts.
- Loot with odds. Chests, capsules and random drops sit under the "variable reward systems" language in Recital 40.
- Knowing who plays. Riot already uses Vanguard, its anti-cheat, to judge who is really at the keyboard; age-aware rules need that kind of account-level knowledge.
| Genre feature | Draft rule for EU minors | Riot's MMO, on the record |
|---|---|---|
| Daily streak rewards | Banned where a missed day costs a benefit (Article 9(2)(d)). | Not revealed |
| Whispers from strangers | Only with the minor's pre-approval (Article 12(1)). | Not revealed |
| Guild and party invites | Only with the minor's explicit agreement (Article 12(1)). | Not revealed |
| Randomized rewards | Protection called for (Recital 40). | Not revealed |
Our read. Riot has two choices. It can build one world for adults and a second rule set for a 15-year-old in Paris, or design the whole game to the stricter rule. The second is cheaper to maintain and easier to defend, and it protects the player with a job and kids who, League's lead gameplay designer says, cannot grind.
The consent screens, invite prompts and guardian tools are interface work first. The team was hiring a senior UX designer in Sydney this month, and Riot has not said how its MMO handles age, contact or rewards.
Read Next
The draft goes to the Parliament and the Council next; three more RuneGrove reads on how Riot builds its games.
Your Take
Should Riot's MMO drop daily streaks for everyone, not just EU minors?
Reported from the Commission's proposal text on EUR-Lex, its KIDS Act FAQ and the two official posts embedded above. The proposal is not law. The read on the unannounced Riot MMO is ours and clearly speculative. Analysis by RuneGrove.
