This appears to be a direct consequence of a recent settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which had charged HoYoverse with deceiving minors into spending for their loot boxes. The Chinese developer was subsequently banned from selling them to users under 16 without a parent’s express consent, paid a $20 million fine to the FTC, and was also subject to the following stipulations:
Prohibited from selling loot boxes using virtual currency without providing an option for consumers to purchase them directly with real money;
Prohibited from misrepresenting loot box odds, prices and features;
Required to disclose loot box odds and exchange rates for multi-tiered virtual currency;
Required to delete any personal information previously collected from children under 13 unless they obtain parental consent to retain such data; and
Required to comply with COPPA, including its notice and consent requirements.
I don’t understand. For spending money one requires banking/card information. How children will get their guardian’s banking details without their consent?
Have you paid for things on mobile in-app? The operating system stores your info behind a password (or biometric) because adults (non-gambling as well) also hate having to memorize 16 digits flawlessly every time they needed to make payments.
Then why tf a game is responsible for their monetory loss? Children are susceptible to many more scams. And on top of that taking such privacy invasive ‘measure’ to solve it doesn’t make sense either. Children can even upload patent’s ids if parents are so careless anyway.
Damn, got 'em. Actually, they deserve to lose $16,000 while raising a gambling addict because they didn’t pull up their bootstraps and micromanage everything their preteen does in “that colorful game they play.”
Mate, asking under-13s to get parent permission is provoking that good parenting you seem to care about anyway—what on earth is the problem?
Parental controls (or just not inputting card details into a phone the child has access to) is a fairly effective way to prevent the child spending the parent’s money without then knowing. Micromanagement is not typically considered good parenting; however showing interest in, and having some knowledge of, what your child spends significant time doing is.
I’ve refused to move my payment from password to biometrics purely because I’ll spend more if I don’t have to type out my 22 character password. A few times I’ve gone to buy something and seen the password field pop up and just like… uhh cbf.
I usually put limit on accounts or cards saved on device for everyday usage. I did the same for others in family too. Thanks to this my aunt lost only $25 when she got tech support scammed.
You’ve made me reread my comment multiple times and I still don’t know what the ancient slang is. God I’m not even 30 and I’m already being made feel old lmao
EDIT: I think you might be misunderstanding the grammar. I am not asking “what for”. “What for” = “why”. I am asking “what do they want as a form of age verification”.
Yeah, if the end consequence is creating a giant database of photos of US ID’s (and storing which accounts theyre associated with as a nice bonus) then that is, in my opinion, not great.
I understand Discord is already rolling out ID verification in the UK and their solution is to use a 3rd party service (you send them your, they just send discord a "is over 18? YES/NO). Personally I don’t think thats much better but it won’t be Discord’s own liability when they find out call center employees in India or Vietnam are using the images of your ID to sell online or something.
No laws against that (lootboxing), yet, and I doubt EA doesn’t have their lobbyists against such laws if enacted. It’s also something that has existed so long as to become a cornerstone of mobile gaming… well, a cornerstone outside of the stupid Voodoo dot-io kind, anyways. While extremely unethical IMO I wouldn’t call it any more deceptive than any regular casino, that is.
@[email protected] @[email protected]
I don’t understand. For spending money one requires banking/card information. How children will get their guardian’s banking details without their consent?
Have you paid for things on mobile in-app? The operating system stores your info behind a password (or biometric) because adults (non-gambling as well) also hate having to memorize 16 digits flawlessly every time they needed to make payments.
Why would parents’ payment info be stored in child’s device or user account?
Not everyone buys a separate device for their children or knows how to/can set up a user account.
Then why tf a game is responsible for their monetory loss? Children are susceptible to many more scams. And on top of that taking such privacy invasive ‘measure’ to solve it doesn’t make sense either. Children can even upload patent’s ids if parents are so careless anyway.
Ignorance is not an excuse for bad parenting.
Damn, got 'em. Actually, they deserve to lose $16,000 while raising a gambling addict because they didn’t pull up their bootstraps and micromanage everything their preteen does in “that colorful game they play.”
Mate, asking under-13s to get parent permission is provoking that good parenting you seem to care about anyway—what on earth is the problem?
Parental controls (or just not inputting card details into a phone the child has access to) is a fairly effective way to prevent the child spending the parent’s money without then knowing. Micromanagement is not typically considered good parenting; however showing interest in, and having some knowledge of, what your child spends significant time doing is.
I’ve refused to move my payment from password to biometrics purely because I’ll spend more if I don’t have to type out my 22 character password. A few times I’ve gone to buy something and seen the password field pop up and just like… uhh cbf.
And then saved like $30.
I usually put limit on accounts or cards saved on device for everyday usage. I did the same for others in family too. Thanks to this my aunt lost only $25 when she got tech support scammed.
Some ancient internet slang you’ve got there.
absorbs
You’ve made me reread my comment multiple times and I still don’t know what the ancient slang is. God I’m not even 30 and I’m already being made feel old lmao
well i can’t be fucked to point it out!
Didn’t know that was ancient, I see it used a lot among… I guess other almost 30 year olds.
ie elderly people.
The why is rarely argued. The how is always the point of contention. That’s why I am wondering what they are asking for age verification.
Sure would be convenient if the US came up with some way to electronically verify IDs…
I don’t understand what you mean. They’re clearly requesting ages over 13 and disabling purchases for those under 16.
I am asking how will they verify the age?
EDIT: I think you might be misunderstanding the grammar. I am not asking “what for”. “What for” = “why”. I am asking “what do they want as a form of age verification”.
Yeah, if the end consequence is creating a giant database of photos of US ID’s (and storing which accounts theyre associated with as a nice bonus) then that is, in my opinion, not great.
I understand Discord is already rolling out ID verification in the UK and their solution is to use a 3rd party service (you send them your, they just send discord a "is over 18? YES/NO). Personally I don’t think thats much better but it won’t be Discord’s own liability when they find out call center employees in India or Vietnam are using the images of your ID to sell online or something.
But the adults, they weren’t deceived in any way. Hoyo scammed them fair and square.
Ban the entire business model.
No laws against that (lootboxing), yet, and I doubt EA doesn’t have their lobbyists against such laws if enacted. It’s also something that has existed so long as to become a cornerstone of mobile gaming… well, a cornerstone outside of the stupid Voodoo dot-io kind, anyways. While extremely unethical IMO I wouldn’t call it any more deceptive than any regular casino, that is.
Rare US W ?