How Facebook "got rich" from the games played by minor users

In order to buy "lives" or other items required by the playgrounds, they charged their parents's credit soaring

Αfaced with a collective action is the Facebook and in which he is accused of allowing children to "load" their parents' credit to play games, in an effort to maximize his profits.

Court documents obtained by the US-based Center for the Investigation of Reports, which were classified as part of a lawsuit filed in 2012, revealed that social media employees were discussing what to do with the "whales". who spent a lot, a reference to casino players), before returning money.

Facebook allows children to create huge accounts in its games, although it suspects that they are underage users, which is below the permissible age limit of 13 years, according to court records.

Among these games were "PetVille, Happy Aquarium, Wild Ones, Barn Buddy and any Ninja game". These games allowed users to gain benefits, such as "lives" or real money purchases. However the connection was unclear to parents and children. The younger children did not understand the concept, while the older ones and teenagers did not know that their parents' credit cards were linked to the accounts until the "sad" one came to them.

In an effort to address the problem, a group of Facebook employees have devised a policy that would allow children to re-insert some credit card details in order to purchase toy items to prove that they have their parents' approval. But it was never implemented.

Parents waited for guarantees and protection to stop buying games, but the company did not return the money. This situation led a company employee to say that Facebook had created a monstrous system.

In a statement issued on Friday, Facebook, through a spokesman, said: "We contacted the Reporting Investigation Center last year and voluntarily declassified documents from a 2012 case of a policy refund for in-app purchases that parents believed were made by mistake by their young children. We have now revealed additional documents, as ordered by the court. Facebook works with parents and professionals to offer Facebook and Internet browsing tools. "As part of this work, we review our practices daily and in 2016 we agreed to update our terms and provide reliable sources for refund requests for purchases made by young children via Facebook."

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