First refund standard for minors' games released, with an eye to clarifying responsibilities and promoting healthy development of the industry.
宣布时间：2024-05-28
Source: Comment Official Accounts
On 28 May, the Internet Society of China released the group standard "Consumption Management Requirements for Minors' Online Game Services (Draft)". This is the game industry's first consumption management and refund standard for minors.
For the widespread concern about the problem of refunding minors' games, the standard said: online game service providers, guardians and other guilty parties should be based on their respective fault, respectively, bear the corresponding responsibility; the guilty party should compensate the other party for the resulting economic losses; all parties are at fault, guardians, online game service providers should bear their respective responsibilities.
It is understood that the Group Standard fills the gap in the industry, emphasises on clarifying the respective responsibilities of all relevant parties in the process of game refund, which will further safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of minors in cyberspace, consolidate the results of anti-sedimentation, and promote the healthy development of the game industry.
The standard is applicable to guide online game service providers, mediation agencies and other organisations to carry out consumer management and mediation of online game services for minors, and can also be used as a reference for relevant administrative departments and judicial organs.
Clearly define the proportion of responsibility of the game party and the guardian, and the refund of underage game has a basis to follow.
With the release of the group standard, underage players game consumption whether refund, refund how much, and how much responsibility should be borne by all parties, this in the past there is a certain controversy, there is a clearer standard and reference basis.
The standard clearly indicates that online game service providers who do not access the real name authentication system or do not implement the requirements of the recharge limit, resulting in minors exceed the recharge, will bear 100% of the responsibility.
After a user files a complaint or applies for a refund as a guardian of a minor, the online game service provider shall verify the identity of the user in accordance with the regulations. If the verification is successful and the claimant meets the criteria for a refund, the online game service provider, the minor and the minor's guardian shall return the property acquired by each of them as a result of the act in accordance with the provisions of the law on "invalid contract".
If the online game service provider has configured anti-obsession measures in accordance with laws and regulations because the guardian helped the minor to circumvent the anti-obsession restriction, or the guardian did not fully perform the guardianship duty, the online game service provider shall bear the corresponding responsibility according to the effectiveness of the anti-obsession measures in the relevant consumption process, with the suggested responsibility ratio of 30%-70%, and the remaining responsibility shall be borne by the guardian. The proposed responsibility ratio is 30%-70%, and the guardian should bear the remaining responsibility.
Examples of typical situations to make the standard more practical.
In order to make the standard more practical, it includes some examples of typical failures in practice. For example, instances in which a guardian helps a minor to circumvent anti-piracy restrictions include: guardians providing their own identity information or that of other adults for real name authentication, providing their own accounts or those of other adults who have completed real name authentication, and helping minors pass identity verification mechanisms such as facial recognition.
Cases where a parent or guardian fails to fully exercise their responsibilities as a parent or guardian include, but are not limited to the guardian knows or should know that the minor has circumvented the anti-sedentary restrictions, but fails to take effective supervisory measures, resulting in the minor being overcharged, such as the minor using the identity information of close relatives such as grandparents or other adults for the purpose of real name authentication, the minor renting or purchasing a game account through online rental and sale platforms, the minor sharing a game account with other adults the guardian does not properly manage his/her bank card, payment account, payment password and other information.
In the above two cases, it is proposed that the guardian bears 30%-70% of the responsibility according to the fault, and in the case of repeated or multiple fault behaviour, or the existence of other serious circumstances, such as intentionally helping to circumvent the means of verification such as facial recognition, applying for refunds several times due to repeated consumption of the same minor or multiple consumption of minors in the same family, or idly fulfilling the guardianship and duty of care over a long period of time (e.g, the consumption in question is more than a year away from the time of the application, etc.). In such cases, the guardian may be held fully responsible.
In order to prevent minors from using the relevant game account to play games after the refund is made, the online game service provider may, based on the protection of minors, the prevention of indulgence in online games, the real name requirement and the request of the guardian, take reasonable measures such as blocking the account of the relevant game account in the refund request.
If the parties are still unable to reach an agreement, they may seek the assistance of the Mediation Working Committee of the Internet Society of China or file a lawsuit with the court. The group standard was established to protect the legitimate rights and interests of all parties. Those who try to exploit the loopholes and file refunds or lawsuits in the name of minors will be blacklisted and may be held legally responsible.
Consolidating the achievements in the fight against addiction and contributing to the healthy development of the industry.
On 30 August 2021, the State Press and Publication Administration (SPPA) issued the "most stringent anti-addiction regulation in history", requiring all online game companies to provide a one-hour service for minors from 8 pm to 9 pm on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and legal holidays only.
Since then, the problem of minors' game addiction has been further solved, and China's game industry and game protection have entered a new stage. On this basis, how to further consolidate the results of the fight against addiction has been an important topic of discussion in the community.
Relevant people said, online game addiction is a social problem, anti-addiction work is a systematic project, online game service providers and parents are the main body of anti-addiction work, the need to jointly assume the legal responsibility for the protection of minors, which has been the current social consensus.
Many parties should work together to create a green network environment and protect the healthy development of minors. Parents, as the first teachers in the process of minors' growth, should also take measures to help their children develop good networking habits and jointly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of minors in cyberspace. (Source: Internet Society of China)