St Petersburg University expert Vladislav Arkhipov takes part in the discussion of the law on regulating video games

The discussion of legislative initiatives brought together representatives of federal authorities, leaders of the Russia’s IT market and legal experts.

Valery Fadeev, Adviser to the President of the Russian Federation, Chairman of the Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights, outlined the ever-increasing importance of the gaming industry and the social risks associated with the immersion of young people in the digital environment. ‘Immersion in the digital environment gives rise to a new social reality,’ he emphasised.

One of the important issues raised during the round table at the situation centre of the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media was the examination of video games. In the report ‘Video games as a subject of legal relations: legally significant features that determine the approach to legal regulation’, Vladislav Arkhipov gave an excursion into the history of the gaming industry, outlined current approaches to the legal qualification of video games and drew the attention of colleagues to the key features that characterise games as a type of media. He warned the participants of the discussion against excessive criticism and urged to take into account the specifics of each type of game. According to the expert, when assessing content, we should take into account the features of the technological nature of games, their interactivity and the fact that many games are initially created as ‘non-serious’ works of art.

In the context of information confrontation, it is essential not to overestimate the potential negative effects of games. For example, ‘retro games’ and those works that have appeared in the last 10 years cannot assessed on the same level. Social media can be considerably more dangerous than single-player story games for the younger generation.

Vladislav Arkhipov, Director of the Centre for Research on Information Security and Digital Transformation at St Petersburg University, Head of the Legal Group of the Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science at St Petersburg University, Head of the Department of Theory and History of State and Law at St Petersburg University

The roundtable participants proposed a number of amendments to the second reading of the law, which regulate the pre-trial procedure for considering complaints, eliminate the risks of conflicts of interest, and more clearly spell out the requirements for experts. They propose to take into account their relevant experience. In particular, a game plot should be evaluated by a person who not only understands the features of video game scenarios, but also creates games.

Since the early 2010s, St Petersburg University has been consistently and comprehensively studying legal issues of the video game industry. Over the past years, dozens of works on this topic have been published. The master’s students at St Petersburg University can take a course ‘Legal issues of the computer games and cybersports industry’.

In 2017, at the initiative of the Expert Council of the Gaming Industry, psychologists and lawyers at St Petersburg University conducted a research project titled ‘Definition and assessment of aspects of the influence of computer games on socio-economic processes: analysis and generalisation of foreign studies’. It attracted the attention of the State Duma and was actively discussed at an extended meeting of the working group on preparation for consideration of the draft federal law ‘On the activities for the development and distribution of video games on the territory of the Russian Federation’ on 24 February 2025. Vladislav Arkhipov also took part in this meeting.