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Epic Games is in the eye of the storm once again. This time, Epic has been fined by the United States' Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the reason being collecting data from children under the age of 13 and also pairing children with other people around the world, failing to adhere to proper parental control and giving an entry for children to be harassed, bullied and threated online, for which Epic Games is being fined $275 million USD by the FTC.

Not only that, but Epic is also getting another fine regarding their in-game store and refund system, with a sum of $245 million USD. This comes from the way in which Epic lays out their button and UI configurations to trick the users into making unwanted purchases, and also, there have been mentions of parents claiming their kids make additional purchases based on the credit card information they used from a previous purchase, meaning that the subsequent purchases didn't require any form of verification or validation.

To make matters worse for Epic Games, they are currently facing a class-action lawsuit in Canada by parents claiming the game is made specifically designed in a way to make the game addictive, which might fall under the World Health Organization's definition of "gaming disorder" as an illness. Canada approved the lawsuit, and it still remains to be seen what might come out of it in court.

Epic Game's Official Post
Source #1
Source #2

 

[eyeliner]

Remember kids, follow the store guidelines, not your parents.

How hard is being a parent, nowadays?
My kids don't go around spending money on those match 3 games and I let them play them, unsupervised.

Corrupt politicians trying to pocket quite a lot of change are just that.

 

[Noctosphere]

I think OSes should have is a profile system that can be read by website/servers/etc,,
For example, the parents should have a way to create a windows account for their child and specify stuff like :
This account is made for someone aged under 18

And the account of the parent (without any restriction) would have a password to keep the childs away from that one

So, when a windows account goes on a porn site, the website will auto-block the access, having read from windows itself that this account is used by a child
There wouldn't be anything such aas a pop-up asking "Are you 18?" whicch can easily be bypassed by saying "errr... yes?"

This system could be applied to pretty much everything, such as video games and other

 

[SylverReZ]

I think OSes should have is a profile system that can be read by website/servers/etc,,
For example, the parents should have a way to create a windows account for their child and specify stuff like :
This account is made for someone aged under 18

And the account of the parent (without any restriction) would have a password to keep the childs away from that one

So, when a windows account goes on a porn site, the website will auto-block the access, having read from windows itself that this account is used by a child
There wouldn't be anything such aas a pop-up asking "Are you 18?" whicch can easily be bypassed by saying "errr... yes?"

This system could be applied to pretty much everything, such as video games and other

Dunno how that's gonna work but still, there should be more safety guards in place to monitor children.

 

[Noctosphere]

Dunno how that's gonna work but still, there should be more safety guards in place to monitor children.

It would be actually very simple
Some flags/data in a windows account (when you log on your computer) that would be available to be read by internet servers, such as website and video game servers
Of course, someone will say "Yea, but what if the child changes those flags/datas?"
Well, of course, the OSes will need protection so that can't be done from their account
And if the child manage to bypass those protection, well the password of its parent account would be useless too i guess? That child is just a brillant hacker, unlike ClanShit

 

[Kioku]

I think OSes should have is a profile system that can be read by website/servers/etc,,
For example, the parents should have a way to create a windows account for their child and specify stuff like :
This account is made for someone aged under 18

And the account of the parent (without any restriction) would have a password to keep the childs away from that one

So, when a windows account goes on a porn site, the website will auto-block the access, having read from windows itself that this account is used by a child
There wouldn't be anything such aas a pop-up asking "Are you 18?" whicch can easily be bypassed by saying "errr... yes?"

This system could be applied to pretty much everything, such as video games and other

Should they? Sure. Will they? Probably not. At least not for the near future, or until a law of some sort forced it.

 

[SylverReZ]

Should they? Sure. Will they? Probably not. At least not for the near future, or until a law of some sort forced it.

I highly doubt that for sure. Routers have parental locks to block certain websites, but it can sure be bypassed if you're using a VPN or a spoofed MAC address.

 

[CrAzYLiFe]

Well how about even Unreal Tournament? However forth installment would be named remake/reboot of the original series. They should also consider eventually optionally Jazz Jackrabbit third installment.

Looks like we have a memoryman3 wannabe or memoryman has finally resurfaced.



For those who weren't around.
https://smashfaqs.fandom.com/wiki/MemoryMan3

 

[Kioku]

I highly doubt that for sure. Routers have parental locks to block certain websites, but it can sure be bypassed if you're using a VPN or a spoofed MAC address.

That's why it's just easier to force an opt-in social service. You could do that per-game, or at an OS/Account level like they have for Xbox Live accounts.

There is the option of preventing unknown players from adding or interacting with a child account. The problem boils down to two possible actors. The parent enabling and enforcing those controls, and the game or service having them enabled by default.

Monitoring the child is the responsibility of the parent but should the service not, by default, provide the safe space that players have to disable? It's easier, as an adult, to opt-in to the social aspect than being the parent and ensuring my kids aren't interacting with potentially malicious actors in every single app, service, game, or whatever.

 

[Maximumbeans]

Keep voice/text chat as an opt-in service. Poor parenting can only be used as an excuse for so long.

I mean I guess so, but it still seems like an odd thing to punish. Expecting the company to specifically protect children from taking verbal abuse just seems weird to me, much as I’d appreciate a game stopping my kids from having to hear such things.
I don’t mean to sound like I’m saying ‘kids should just deal with abuse’, I just mean the fine seems heavy handed. But then I don’t really care for Epic as a special case because this probably won’t even scratch their profits.

 

[Kioku]

I mean I guess so, but it still seems like an odd thing to punish. Expecting the company to specifically protect children from taking verbal abuse just seems weird to me, much as I’d appreciate a game stopping my kids from having to hear such things.
I don’t mean to sound like I’m saying ‘kids should just deal with abuse’, I just mean the fine seems heavy handed. But then I don’t really care for Epic as a special case because this probably won’t even scratch their profits.

It's not specifically protecting children from verbal abuse. It's hoping to enable a safer playspace for EVERYBODY. It's why I'm glad games like Call of Duty now have players agreeing to consequences should they choose to needlessly spew toxicity. Accountability is something that needs to happen, unfortunately that doesn't seem realistic. So, yeah, I would rather have to opt-in to being able to communicate than the opposite.

I am hopeful this sets the precedent moving forward. Not just Epic, but everybody.

 

[Tri-Z]

Where does the money to the fines go? That’s a lot of fine money for the ftc. Is it for campaigning to pass more legislation to make to benefit them preying on companies for easy money.

 

[godreborn]

Epic fail!

 

[Sir Tortoise]

Where does the money to the fines go? That’s a lot of fine money for the ftc. Is it for campaigning to pass more legislation to make to benefit them preying on companies for easy money.

The $245 million fine will be redistributed to Fortnite players, presumably based on their purchase history. It's not stated for the other fine, they probably have a big pool where FTC employees can swim through the money they've stolen from the poor defenceless multibillion dollar companies.

 

[Kioku]

The $245 million fine will be redistributed to Fortnite players, presumably based on their purchase history. It's not stated for the other fine, they probably have a big pool where FTC employees can swim through the money they've stolen from the poor defenceless multibillion dollar companies.

"Would you like V-Bucks or an EGS credit?"

Not sure how it'll play out, but this comes to mind for some reason...

 

[DoctorBagPhD]

Good.

 

[SS4]

Well, what do you expect with them hosting games like Fortnite and Rocket League rofl. Yeah you get matched up with 9 year old all the time so really no surprise here . . .
Once again comes down to parenting more than anything else. Ppl just let young kids do everything on the web nowadays ffs.

 

[64bitmodels]

520 mil is nothing sue them for 50 bil now that'll make them learn their lesson. this is like giving a robber a fine for robbing a bank by making him pay 50 dollars

 

[eduall]

It's fornite fault!

 

[CommanderCool]

pocket change to epic. cmon...itd be cooler if they had something critical done to their operations. like in the billions.

 

[phil3254]

How do they even mess up so badly? It's a constant for them to mess up things, but now it's even worse. How do they do that lmao.

really seems to be a talent at this point does'nt it? lmfao!