New York Proposes Loot Box Limits and Stronger Protections for Minors
New York state officials have unveiled a legislative package aimed at curbing loot box mechanics on digital platforms.
LISTEN TO THIS ARTICLE:The proposals also seek to limit unsupervised contact between minors and strangers online, with Roblox singled out as a primary concern.
Governor Kathy Hochul outlined the proposals this week as part of a broader child-safety push, calling for mandatory parental controls on in-app transactions and firm age-verification requirements for digital purchases. The measures would bar platforms from allowing non-connected users to message or contact accounts registered as belonging to people under 18 and would disable location-sharing features for all users under that age threshold.
“Parents should not have to police every purchase or every chat”, Hochul said in announcing the plan. “The responsibility belongs on the shoulders of the app companies and platforms themselves.” New York Attorney General Letitia James backed the proposals, highlighting what she described as an emerging pattern of risk on popular platforms. “Platforms that create unsafe environments for children – whether through gambling-like mechanics or by enabling predatory contact – must be held accountable”, James said.
Roblox, the user-generated game platform with a large under-18 audience, has been a focal point in the debate. Critics point to loot box–style offerings and virtual item purchases that can be made with parents’ stored payment methods as a vector for both financial harm and exposure to sexual predators. Roblox has previously faced litigation and scrutiny over its in-game purchase systems and user safety, and the firm has announced various safety and parental-control features in response to public pressure.
The controversy over loot boxes is longstanding and global. Several European regulators, notably authorities in Belgium and the Netherlands, have treated certain random-reward mechanics as gambling and restricted them; the UK Gambling Commission and academic researchers have regularly studied the consumer-protection implications. Industry defenders argue that loot boxes differ from traditional gambling because they guarantee an in-game reward and typically have no intrinsic real-world cash value, but the existence of secondary markets and item trading has blurred that distinction for regulators and courts.
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Lawmakers' Next Moves and Industry Reaction
Policy drafters in Albany are expected to refine the language of the proposals over the coming weeks and coordinate with state lawmakers and legal advisers before introducing formal bills. If enacted, the rules could require platforms to implement verified parental-consent flows, stronger transaction controls tied to age, and tighter defaults on privacy and communication settings for minors.
Experts who study gaming and youth behaviour say the proposals reflect a growing regulatory appetite for platform-level responsibility. Dr. David Zendle, a researcher who has published on gambling-like mechanics in video games, commented: “Loot boxes occupy a gray area: they replicate risk-and-reward dynamics similar to gambling, particularly when young players can spend real money without adequate oversight. Platform-level limits and enforced parental controls would address the most acute exposure pathways for children.”
Industry groups and platform operators will likely push back on broad-brush rules that could affect user experience and monetization models. Platform representatives routinely emphasize investments in moderation technology, age assurance tools and parental controls; how regulators measure the sufficiency of those measures will be central to forthcoming negotiations.
For parents, child-safety advocates and the games industry, the New York proposals mark a possible turning point: moving responsibility for preventing risky transactions and unwanted contact from households to the companies operating digital playgrounds. Lawmakers in other states and at the federal level have watched similar initiatives closely, and a successful New York push could prompt wider regulatory shifts across the United States.
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