TL;DR Don't give your children access to your credit / bank cards. Seriously...
'My son spent £3,160 in one game'
261–270 of 340 posts
Re: 'My son spent £3,160 in one game'
#262Earlier quoted context omitted.
2FA will be required across the EU in September (outside of some exemptions, eg a charge under €30) https://www.barclaycard.co.uk/business/news-and-insights/wha...
I was about to say this won't help at all with the microtransaction problem detailed in the article, but then I read your link and found this more complete (although confusing) description of the exemption you name: >single transactions must be less than €30, up to a maximum of €100 or five transactions It's the "or" there that I don't quite understand. Does this mean that any 5 transactions can be made without 2FA a…
Its the same rules as contactless credit card payments by most banks here: after every 5 transactions you need to verify, everyone not larger than 30€ and the sum of these 5 transactions may not exceed 100€.
If your next spending will break these rules you need to verify it
Re: 'My son spent £3,160 in one game'
#263I strongly believe that video games today are comparable to alcohol in the 60's. Y'know, how people in the 60's would say "Oh Johnny just likes his liquor" when Johnny's drinking at 9AM, drunk at 10 and hungover by 2. Right now we have people who are facing serious problems with video games, and yet we brush them off casually and callously. I can't count the number of stories on reddit about playing video games all d…
Thanks for sharing this. I totally agree.
Re: 'My son spent £3,160 in one game'
#264I’m addicted to the news, and especially if it makes me feel like i’m under attack by forces i have no control over. Thanyou BBC, you’re my opium.
Re: 'My son spent £3,160 in one game'
#265Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think, like with other addictions, you need to take a holistic view of video game addiction that also includes the circumstances of the addicted people during their transition from casual use, to abuse, to addiction. Why? Because most people don't get addicted to video games, just like most people don't get addicted to alcohol. And while you might be able to chalk some of it up to addictive personalities (predispos…
The root cause of addiction is the same, whether it's a behavioural addiction like video games, exercise, gambling, or sex, or drugs. It's reward seeking behaviour trying to cause a rise in dopamine levels. The physiological effects of substance abuse is generally worse, but the cause is the same, from my experience and people I know the root cause is underlying psychological issues that cause people to engage in sel…
Apperently a big issue with "gamers", which should not be confused with game addiction, is that kids use it to sooth their mental problems. If you have ADHD it's a effective way of getting something to do all the time with short bursts of dopamine. If you have social problems you can hide behind a screen with something you are familiar with.If you feel really unwell, like dealing with thr death of a relative, it's easy to play longer.
To find out how healthy the relationship with gaming is, other factors are used instead, like do the person shower, eat and don't start the day by playing instantly? There are currently science being done on this right now, I should find this.
Some kids are more prone to "get stuck" also, opening the door to an investigation into autism/asberger.
In the end kids kinda find their own way and go out and play and get bored behind a screen. Alcohol addiction and video game addiction does not work in the same way.
Re: 'My son spent £3,160 in one game'
#266What were these parents thinking? This isn't a new issue. People have been reading stories like this in the news for a decade and still they hand their kid their iPad and say "go play over there while dad watches the news..." You can literally use your phone and google/apple account as a credit card nowadays. It's irresponsible to just hand that to a child. Ignorance is not an excuse. (that said, of course there shou…
I disagree that it's as simple as just blaming the parents. As a technical community it is easy for us to assert that there are probably optional restrictions somewhere but many parents who are not technically-minded will not necessarily make that connection. Manufacturers/vendors of these devices simply don't do a good job of advertising to parents about these risks and the options available to restrict them.
iOS, as an example, does have the ability to disable in-app purchases using the "Content & Privacy Restrictions" settings, but unless you dig through the device settings and found them (under "Screen Time" no less) then you would not know that those options exist. Given the obscure naming reducing the chance of them ever being found, they had might as well not exist.
Apple could do things to improve this. They could clearly ask about parental controls up-front during the device initial setup, they could clearly place them at the top-level of the Settings app and label them "Parental Controls", they could even include a bit of paper in the box or some printed text on the packaging that explains where to find those options.
They do none of those things.
Re: 'My son spent £3,160 in one game'
#267I think an obvious solution here is simply to strengthen consumer protection laws and shift the burden of preventing this from the consumer to the vendor. The common thread in all these stories was "a kid spends a bunch of money, parent asks for a refund, is told no". But consider if the law says that digital goods such as this must be refunded on demand unless you can prove the purchaser wasn't a child. (If you want…
What about phone companies with limited data plans? A friend of mine had his kid use his iPhone's hotspot and got a $800 bill connecting it to his tablet to watch movies while on vacation. Is this the phone companies fault because the person let his kid know his iPhone password?
I wouldn’t say its the phone company’s fault directly but did they even try to contact your friend in any way to let them know that their bill is now 2, 3, 4 or even 5 times bigger than usual?
Re: 'My son spent £3,160 in one game'
#268Another one of those oversensationalized outrage articles that can be boiled down to "I cannot put even a minimal effort in keeping an eye on my children, so I will blame someone else for it and make it their responsibility." There is literally a setting on iOS for that specific specific scenario, which allows to prevent in-app purchases[0]. And it is very easy and intuitive to set up too, so it isn't like it is hidd…
> And it is very easy and intuitive to set up too, so it isn't like it is hidden behind millions of menus and dark patterns.
Disagree on the basis that neither "Screen Time" nor "Content & Privacy Restrictions" are terms that imply having anything to do with spending money.
They could have a top-level settings item called "Parental Controls" and they choose not to.
Re: 'My son spent £3,160 in one game'
#269Earlier quoted context omitted.
I remember hearing about one guy asking his bank to essentially block any gambling transaction as he was an addict https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-45652429 Obviously there are ways to cirumvent that but it seemed to help him. I suspect it's harder to block these in app purchases at the bank level though, unless everything goes through Apple/Google pay and you block at that level
In Germany you can set yourself on the black list of your local casino or whatever. It‘s a legally required feature. https://www.verspiel-nicht-dein-leben.de/spielsucht/spielers...
This is true in the UK as well. Unfortunately there are new online bookies every week.
The government also set a maximum amount of 4 video game slots machines per store, causing the number of stores to go up by 3 or 4x meaning that after self excluding from one place, you will still walk past many others as you go about your routine. Thankfully this is now being rolled back, as they have set a maximum stake that means most of these stores will have to close down.
Re: 'My son spent £3,160 in one game'
#270What were these parents thinking? This isn't a new issue. People have been reading stories like this in the news for a decade and still they hand their kid their iPad and say "go play over there while dad watches the news..." You can literally use your phone and google/apple account as a credit card nowadays. It's irresponsible to just hand that to a child. Ignorance is not an excuse. (that said, of course there shou…
I disagree that it's as simple as just blaming the parents. As a technical community it is easy for us to assert that there are probably optional restrictions somewhere but many parents who are not technically-minded will not necessarily make that connection. Manufacturers/vendors of these devices simply don't do a good job of advertising to parents about these risks and the options available to restrict them. iOS, a…
I'd argue it's the parents responsibility to educate themselves in this regard. Again, this isn't new news. If you can make a purchase on the device, your child can make that purchase too. Certainly, the OS can flag more warnings during the setup of the device etc. but I doubt the people getting into this situation will pay any more attention than they've evidently done so far (which is to say very little)