"Epic put children and teens at risk"
December 19, 2022 10:13 AM   Subscribe

"Epic used privacy-invasive default settings and deceptive interfaces that tricked Fortnite users, including teenagers and children.... these enforcement actions make clear to businesses that the FTC is cracking down on these unlawful practices." Fortnite Video Game Maker Epic Games to Pay More Than Half a Billion Dollars over FTC Allegations of Privacy Violations and Unwanted Charges
posted by jessamyn (13 comments total) 16 users marked this as a favorite
 
It all seemed pretty standard till I got to the section where, in response to complaints, they made refund buttons harder to find.

At every step, they chose to screw their customers. I don't know that I'd ever let my kid play it even after reforms, unless all the people responsible were fired, which the article did not mention. My assumption would be they'd just find other ways to screw you.
posted by emjaybee at 10:29 AM on December 19, 2022 [5 favorites]


Oh god I hope Roblox is next, and there it better be at least ten figures.
posted by seanmpuckett at 10:48 AM on December 19, 2022 [16 favorites]


Go FTC!
posted by humbug at 10:55 AM on December 19, 2022 [2 favorites]


I hope this is enough to hurt them and not just be a business expense.
posted by Artw at 10:57 AM on December 19, 2022 [3 favorites]


Oh god I hope Roblox is next, and there it better be at least ten figures.

tbf every time my kid asks to buy Robux, I spend like 5-10 minutes just figuring out how to make it actually happen. So we are for sure never accidentally spending real money in there, at least (hooray for functional parental controls on iOS).

But yeah -- Epic should absolutely be pilloried for all the things mentioned here. They knew what they were doing and they did it (and keep on doing it) anyway.
posted by uncleozzy at 11:15 AM on December 19, 2022


ftc should force epic to make a new mainline unreal tournament game
posted by AlbertCalavicci at 11:15 AM on December 19, 2022 [7 favorites]


I hope this is enough to hurt them and not just be a business expense.

It represents about 8% of their projected 2022 revenue. Enough to hurt, but not a lot.

On the other hand it’s an absolute drop in the bucket (0.5% of revenue) for Tencent, which owns 40% of Epic.
posted by jedicus at 11:17 AM on December 19, 2022 [1 favorite]


A few weeks ago Epic announced that accounts of underage users would be sandboxed "cabined", preventing them from using chat/purchases until a parent approves, and now we know why!

I'm sure no kids will figure out how to work around the "enter your parent's email address so we can ask them for permission" prompt.
posted by The Lurkers Support Me in Email at 11:26 AM on December 19, 2022 [4 favorites]


Re: Roblox, check out the video from People Make Games on them and their own young consumers. (previously)
posted by Carillon at 11:54 AM on December 19, 2022 [5 favorites]


I liked them better when their biggest hit was Jazz Jackrabbit.
posted by biogeo at 12:07 PM on December 19, 2022 [5 favorites]


On the one hand, that behavior sucks, and they deserve to be slapped around for it.
On the other hand, I really like Unreal and UT. I've also gotten a bunch of really good games for free from the Epic store.

Hopefully this'll see an end to the practice of "do a chargeback, we'll lock your account."
posted by Spike Glee at 12:37 PM on December 19, 2022


I'm very in favour of anything that hurts Fortnite to be perfectly frank. As near as I can tell from the children in my life, it and Roblox are poisoning their brains and in the case of Roblox, actually stealing their labour. So yes, hit Epic and any company that profits off children in those ways with big, ruinous fines.

I'm not a parent myself, so I'll stop short of saying it's poor parenting when kids that play these games "unexpectedly" rack up charges on their parents' credit cards but honestly, if they'd put in even the tiniest bit of research or just spent time watching their children play the game, they'd have known what was up. Lots of parents don't bother keeping up with what their kids are doing with technology and that creates spaces that are ripe for predators, both in the capitalist/financial sense and in other, darker senses.

We have Twitch, YouTube, Discord, Reddit - parents can learn about the content, community, and costs associated with the games their kids are playing with only a little effort. And honestly, when it comes to in-game communication, I like what Nintendo does. Severely limit it. When you have pre-teens playing a game, I strongly question whether having voice or text chat is a good idea at all.
posted by signsofrain at 1:41 PM on December 19, 2022 [4 favorites]


The second half of the payout for "illegal dark patterns" could have really big consequences for all kinds of companies, not just Epic. If this recent reddit thread is a true story, Google has the same policy of blocking accounts for the crime of disputing a charge through one's credit card company.
posted by makoi at 2:05 PM on December 19, 2022 [7 favorites]


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