Privacy law: Under-18s may be defined as minors in gaming

livemint.com:

NEW DELHI : The government may define individuals below 18 years as underage for the online gaming sector for processing of personal data, while the definition of underage might be revised in the case of edtech and healthcare sectors under the digital personal data protection law, a senior official aware of the matter said. “For healthcare and education, the age limits can be reduced to below 18, which will not pose an issue.

But for gaming, it may be kept at 18," the official said on condition of anonymity. The official, however, noted that consultations with the industry on framing of the rules will take place, and a timeframe for implementing the rules will be notified to ensure compliance.

Section 9 (5) of the the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Bill, under ‘processing of personal data of children’, stated that specific companies and sectors could be allowed a revised age limit for what defines an underage user — if “processing of personal data of children is done in a manner that is verifiably safe". So far, India did not have specific legislation laying down guidelines on how companies in the country could collect and process the personal data of underage users, with the only provision being Section 43A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, dealing with negligence of overall personal data.

Section 9 of the DPDP Bill addresses this, preventing the collection and processing of personal data of underage users—apart from a case-wise exemption offered under Section 9(5). Industry stakeholders and experts said such a move may not significantly alter the operations and revenue of real-money gaming firms—although e-sports firms may face a bigger impact due to such a decision.