Game companies urged to help protect children's interests online

The Guangdong Consumer Council has arranged talks with many online game companies in the province, urging them to take social responsibility and introduce effective and concrete measures to protect the consumption rights and interests of minors.

"Game companies should fully and effectively implement real name registration of online game user accounts, and improve the real name authentication mode, and especially improve the accuracy and effectiveness of identifying minors," said a statement that was released by the council on Sunday.

Effective technical measures should be taken to limit game time and change the behavior of minors, said the statement.

Game companies are urged to introduce multiple verification mechanisms, including fingerprint, password or facial recognition, for juveniles' paying to play online games, the statement said.

"After recharging, text message notification should be sent to registered mobile phone numbers to prevent minors from using the adult account to recharge," the statement said.

Meanwhile the statement urged parents to buy or equip their children with special devices or set their mobile phones to a mode suitable for their children.

If minors need to use their parents' mobile phones, parents should help their children use their personal identity information to register relevant app accounts to prevent their children from indulging in online games and recharging without a nod from their parents, the statement said.

Parents also should check their children's mobile phones regularly to help prevent their children becoming addicted to games, find out if they are secretly recharging large sums of money to play games or if their children have downloaded and used other apps.

Parents should collect enough evidence, including chat records between their children and game companies' customer service, and seek help from consumer councils and relevant departments if they discover economic losses.

The statement was issued after the consumer council received a growing number of complaints from local parents who said the game companies had refused to refund large sums of money their children secretly charged to play online games.

According to statistics from the council, the council had received more than 10,000 complaints involving children's online games' consumption from local parents in the first three months of this year.

Many children had to use their computers and mobile phones to attend online courses at home when classes were suspended because of COVID-19 outbreak.

The pandemic has offered good opportunities for juveniles to play online games at home, the statement added.