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Epic Games to pay $520M to resolve FTC allegations

wsj.com

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Re: Epic Games to pay $520M to resolve FTC allegations

#41

Post by sieabahlpark »

tyleo wrote: post #26
Gareth321 wrote: post #4

I'm fine with Epic getting financially reprimanded for dark patterns and anti-consumer behaviour. I am not on board with this: > That lawsuit also accused the company of illegally enabling real-time voice and text chat communications for children and teens in the game by default. So voice chat must now be turned off by default for all children across America? How on earth is this supposed to be policed? Should everyo…

I don’t know what the big deal is with people in this thread saying, “bah, this is impossible” but I work on a COPPA compliant game and “chat off for kids by default” is a standard or https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/childrens-on...

No post body was provided.

Re: Epic Games to pay $520M to resolve FTC allegations

#42

Post by ThisNameNotUsed »

Gareth321 wrote: post #4

I'm fine with Epic getting financially reprimanded for dark patterns and anti-consumer behaviour. I am not on board with this: > That lawsuit also accused the company of illegally enabling real-time voice and text chat communications for children and teens in the game by default. So voice chat must now be turned off by default for all children across America? How on earth is this supposed to be policed? Should everyo…

So just because perfect enforcement is not possible the law doesn’t make sense to you? Of the billions(maybe trillions) of interactions on this game this law prevents millions of stupid ones with small children. That’s more than enough of a reason for you to click one extra button. Boo boo. Google seat belt law statistics on a similar situation.

Re: Epic Games to pay $520M to resolve FTC allegations

#43

Post by devmor »

Spivak wrote: post #18
stevehawk wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what was "the chat problem" ?

The fact that online gaming chat is really really toxic . It's one of those things where christian mothers were right about video games but wrong about why. It turns out that artificial violence and guns and sex aren't some big corrupting influence but hanging around assholes for the majority of your leisure time and social activity absolutely is. Online gaming where the only communication between players is jumping…

I don't share your experience at all. In fact the the majority of online gaming chats I've been in have been relatively enjoyable and low drama.

It's generally the ones that have children in them that get toxic - I would guess because children have less developed social filters and act out their negative emotions more readily than adults.

Re: Epic Games to pay $520M to resolve FTC allegations

#44

Post by ThisNameNotUsed »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #15
Gareth321 wrote: post #4

I'm fine with Epic getting financially reprimanded for dark patterns and anti-consumer behaviour. I am not on board with this: > That lawsuit also accused the company of illegally enabling real-time voice and text chat communications for children and teens in the game by default. So voice chat must now be turned off by default for all children across America? How on earth is this supposed to be policed? Should everyo…

Amazing how many people in this thread want to run to the government to solve the problem. It’s kind of like that musk thread from yesterday where a bunch of people showed up to defend the policy of banning links. If someone makes a rule, there will always be someone else who thinks it’s a good idea. As someone who grew up on roleplaying games when I was about 13, and had lots of exposure to the adult side of life, I…

13 is nothing like 10, or 8. I have nephews playing on their own at 4.

Re: Epic Games to pay $520M to resolve FTC allegations

#45

Post by Workaccount2 »

TheBrokenRail wrote: post #21
_fat_santa wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Epic could add a dose of CYA here. Disable voice and text chat, and put the enable switch behind a "for 18+ only" or something like that and have them confirm their birthdate. Not that it would actually stop minors from bypassing this by clicking through the prompt and entering a fake age. But this would allow Epic to argue to the court that they are doing more than their competitors to verify that children are not u…

When we get into situations like this, you do have to question if the law requiring it is just plain silly.

Thinking about it, I can't blame the FTC for requiring it even if it is laughably stupid. If their mandate is "Do the best you can", putting in some obstruction to kids voice chat is better than nothing. Even if it only prevents 0.00001 more kids from using voice chat, their mandate is to choose that over 0.

Re: Epic Games to pay $520M to resolve FTC allegations

#46

Post by ThisNameNotUsed »

mardifoufs wrote: post #25
Spivak wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that online gaming chat is really really toxic . It's one of those things where christian mothers were right about video games but wrong about why. It turns out that artificial violence and guns and sex aren't some big corrupting influence but hanging around assholes for the majority of your leisure time and social activity absolutely is. Online gaming where the only communication between players is jumping…

Or maybe this is exactly the same as those christian mothers, in the sense that it's "think of the children" hysteria from modern day puritans?

No post body was provided.

Re: Epic Games to pay $520M to resolve FTC allegations

#48

Post by lkramer »

zamadatix wrote: post #27
tyleo wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know what the big deal is with people in this thread saying, “bah, this is impossible” but I work on a COPPA compliant game and “chat off for kids by default” is a standard or https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/childrens-on...

How are you verifying age? The "this is impossible"s are about it being accurate on age not the disabling of chat once you have an accurate age. The point being the law is useless theatre that does nothing to prevent kids from using it but annoys everyone else anyways.

There are multiple ways, but considering they own a company that is supposed to do this as a service, failing to do this for the own biggest game seems a bit weak.

https://www.superawesome.com/

Re: Epic Games to pay $520M to resolve FTC allegations

#49

Post by RC_ITR »

lkramer wrote: post #48
zamadatix wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are you verifying age? The "this is impossible"s are about it being accurate on age not the disabling of chat once you have an accurate age. The point being the law is useless theatre that does nothing to prevent kids from using it but annoys everyone else anyways.

There are multiple ways, but considering they own a company that is supposed to do this as a service, failing to do this for the own biggest game seems a bit weak. https://www.superawesome.com/

Amazing the contradictory thinking people have about “it’s impossible to know a child’s age” vs. “it’s totally fine and reasonable that Google knows you’re pregnant before you do”.
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