The National Consumer Affairs Center of Japan is cautioning parents against granting their children unrestricted access to smartphones and tablets, following a surge in complaints over unauthorized charges for online games.
In fiscal 2022 that ended in March 2023, the center fielded 4,024 inquiries concerning online game microtransactions made by students of elementary, junior high and high schools without the knowledge of their parents. Of these, elementary students accounted for 49.4% of the inquiries, junior high students for 37.6%, and high school students for 13.0%.
The financial ramifications of these microtransactions were significant, with amounts ranging from ¥100,000 ($660) to ¥500,000 incurred in 49.7% of the cases, ¥500,000 to ¥1 million in 14.1%, and exceeding ¥1 million in 6.5% of instances. The average amount spent was ¥330,000, the center said in a report released in March.
The number of parents who called in about online game transactions doubled in fiscal 2022 in comparison with fiscal 2018, with a notable proportion involving unauthorized payments made using a parent's preregistered credit card information on smartphones or tablets.
Under the Civil Code, contracts entered into by minors without parental consent can be nullified. However, there are situations where guardians are deemed responsible for payments if the transactions were made using their user profiles, the center said.
If a user is still logged in on a device, it is easy to change the password and other settings required for payment. The center reported incidents where elementary school students had confessed to accessing their parents' phone settings, altering passwords and adding their fingerprints for authentication.
Moreover, if a child's smartphone is tethered to a parent's contract with a telecom provider, they can conduct online transactions, even on their personal device, in the form of network charges. A case documented in September involved a junior high school student who racked up ¥50,000 in microtransactions over five months by charging the payments directly to his parent’s phone plan.
The center advocated several precautions, such as deleting credit card information after setting up a child’s phone, imposing a low payment cap for cell phone charges and implementing stringent parental controls on children’s devices.
Additionally, the center stressed the importance of monitoring network billing statements regularly and educating children on the real-world consequences of spending money within online games.
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