YouTube eases up restrictions on violent video games

YouTube’s new policies pave the way for making such video games available to everyone, including those who stated their age to be below 18 years.

YouTube said it may still age-restrict content if violent or gory imagery is the sole focus of the video (REUTERS)

A new YouTube policy allows creators to upload video games with scripted or simulated violent content without bothering about getting automatically hit by age-restriction gates.

The new policy which came into effect on Monday paved the way for making such video games available to everyone, including those who stated their age to be below 18 years.

"We know there's a difference between real-world violence and scripted or simulated violence -- such as what you see in movies, TV shows, or video games -- so we want to make sure we're enforcing our violent or graphic content policies consistently," YouTube said in a product update.

"There will be fewer restrictions for violence in gaming, but this policy will still maintain our high bar to protect audiences from real-world violence," the Google-owned video-sharing platform said.

 

Gaming Creators: We've heard loud and clear that our policies need to differentiate between real-world vs. simulated violence, and we're updating our enforcement to reflect that.

Learn More: https://t.co/Bkb4osVoOs

— YouTube Gaming (@YouTubeGaming) December 2, 2019

YouTube said it may still age-restrict content if violent or gory imagery is the sole focus of the video. For instance, if the video focuses entirely on the most graphically violent part of a video game. This policy enforcement update, however, does not change advertiser-friendly guidelines.

So if a video is considered too violent for advertisers, it will continue to run the risk of being demonetised even if it is fine by YouTube's standards, The Verge reported.