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Parents Should Guard Against Children Spending with Abandon on Online Games Urging for Regulation to Enhance Transparency of Game Providers to Protect Consumer Rights

  • 2023.04.17

With a mobile phone in hand, online gaming can be a pastime throughout the day. Many gamers pay money to level up their character for a better and more fun gaming experience. However, if children and teenagers are not mature enough or lack self-control, they may get addicted to online games and be unable to refrain from in-game purchases, eventually falling into a bottomless pit. In addition, players may also experience unpleasant incidents during gaming, and may even fall victim to account theft, leading to various consumer disputes.

Presently there are no laws on online gaming in Hong Kong. The Consumer Council urges the Government to consider referencing other jurisdictions and introduce a regulatory mechanism to protect consumer rights on odds of winning prizes, sales practices, refund mechanisms, and protection for underage consumers. Game providers should also improve transparency in operations, such as clearly stating the prize-winning odds of each character or item, and introducing a “minimum guarantee mechanism”, meaning that if no prizes are won after exhausting a designated number of draws within a specified period of time, certain item(s) will be automatically awarded to ensure reasonable rewards from the money spent. Game operators should also increase parents’ capacity in monitoring their children’s accounts, for example, by setting a cap on transaction amount or duration of use. Account security should also be strengthened, such as introducing “2-step authentication” for login to improve consumer protection.

Case 1: Teenager Spent $90,000 on Virtual Items in the Absence of Parental Monitoring

The complainant had not installed parental control on her 13-year-old son’s smart device account, and later found out he had bought virtual items in several mobile games, spending around $90,000 in total within 20 days. About $59,000 of these purchases were made by the son for virtual items in various games through Company A’s electronic payment tool on Company B’s application store platform, whereas about $31,000 worth of virtual items were purchased directly from a mobile game operated by Company C. The complainant tried to get a refund from the relevant game developers, but was only refunded a total of $4,000. The complainant opined that minors are not mature enough to be responsible for consumption behaviour. Dissatisfied with Company A for allowing minors to open accounts and make payments, and Company B for allowing minors to make purchases, the complainant sought help from the Council.

According to Company A’s reply, the complainant had revealed that her son had logged into her online banking account to transfer money into his electronic wallet. Company A’s service agreement also stated that if a user under 18 agreed to the agreement, it meant the minor had brought the relevant terms to the attention of parents, who would be deemed to have read and consented to the terms of the agreement. As such, the company would not be liable for any loss suffered by the minor user in using the service, and therefore a refund would not be arranged. After the Council’s conciliation, Company B eventually agreed to a discretionary one-off refund of $59,000. The complainant subsequently informed the Council that another discretionary refund of approximately $31,000 was offered by Company C and the case was finally resolved.

Case 2: Game Provider Denied Liability for Stolen Account, Equipment and Gear

The complainant, an online game player from the Mainland, discovered that all tradable equipment, gear, and game coins under his account had been transferred away overnight, with an estimated loss of about $24,000. When the complainant contacted game operator Company D in the hopes of reclaiming the stolen items, Company D advised him to report to the police. The complainant filed reports with both the Mainland and Hong Kong police, and contacted the Council to help resolve the dispute against Company D.

Company D confirmed that the gear and equipment under the complainant's account had been stolen by illegal means, but the items had been transferred to another account and then sold to a third-party player who knew nothing of the circumstances, so Company D claimed to be unable to return them to the complainant.  Company D opined that the complainant’s loss should be compensated by the thief and thus refused to reimburse any items, while reminding the complainant to be more vigilant in account security, such as not to disclose the password or visit unknown websites to reduce the risk of account theft. The Council advised the complainant to consider seeking legal advice.

Case 3: Game Character's Attribute Affected by Server Merge but Request for Refund Denied           

The complainant played a mobile “idle game” where the character's attribute would keep progressing even with no interaction from the player, thus the complainant thought the creation time of the character was crucial. However, the game provider suddenly announced that it would merge the server on which the complainant’s character was playing with another server that had been opened earlier. The complainant considered this breaking the balance of the game which seriously affected the gaming experience, hence demanded the game provider to refund a total of $25,000 that he paid from the date joined until the day of the server merge. The game provider suggested the complainant to apply for a refund from the app store platform Company E instead, but Company E insisted that the refund had to be approved by the game provider. The complainant felt both parties were shifting responsibility and approached the Council for assistance.

Company E told the Council that after reviewing the case, it had decided not to refund the complainant and would not provide any further written explanation. The Council then advised the complainant to consider seeking legal advice should he wish to take further action and seek redress.

The popularity of online games has made the trend of in-game purchases an important consumer issue, but consumers can suffer financial losses if they take online and account security lightly, or if children lack parental guidance when playing online games. Consumers should pay heed to the following:

  • Parents may consider setting up parental controls on their children’s smart device accounts, such as setting time limits and parental approval for app downloads or purchases, to avoid excessive spending by children. Parents should also keep a watchful eye on their personal accounts to ensure that they do not make payment transfers, add value, or make purchases without parents’ knowledge;
  • Consumers should be careful with account information, choose strong passwords that contain a combination of upper- and lower-case letters, numbers and symbols and are of a certain length, and change them regularly. In addition, anti-virus and anti-malware programmes should be installed, operating systems, browsers and applications should be regularly updated, while programmes from unknown sources should be avoided to strengthen cyber protection;
  • There is no objective standard for gaming experience and it is often difficult for consumers to use unpleasant experience as a reason to apply for a refund. Furthermore, game developers generally advise consumers to contact app store platforms for refunds. On the other hand, the platforms will claim that the content and operation of the game are controlled by the game provider, and any problems on game experience should be reported to the game provider, giving consumers the impression that they are shifting responsibility. If a game provider is registered or its office is located outside of Hong Kong, it will be even more difficult for consumers to seek redress.

 

Download the article (Chinese only):  https://ccchoice.org/558complaints

 

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