Poster News reporter Liu Jingyi reports from Shanghai
A few days ago, a man in Zhejiang posted a video of slapping himself on social platforms, saying that his 8-year-old son recharged six or seven thousand yuan in ten minutes playing an egg boy party game, and charged more than 10,000 yuan in a few days, which attracted the attention of netizens.
On the Black Cat complaint platform, there are 22,161 complaints based on the keyword "egg boy party", many of which are related to "underage recharge refund".
What kind of game is it?
The number of complaints on the black cat complaint platform "egg boy party" as the keyword reached 22,161
The reporter measured: the first recharge needs to enter the password, and the same price is free of password within 15 minutes
According to public information, Egg Boy Party is a trendy casual competitive game developed by NetEase, which is suitable for users aged 8 and above. Since its launch in 2022, the game has attracted the favor of young players in a short period of time.
On February 29 this year, NetEase announced its financial report, with annual revenue exceeding 100 billion last year, including frequent mention of egg boy parties, with 500 million registered users and 40 million daily active users during the Spring Festival.
The aforementioned video shows that Mr. Zhang in Zhejiang said that his son played the egg boy party game for ten minutes and charged more than 6,000 yuan, and after charging once, he automatically paid without passwords. According to The Paper, on April 9, NetEase Games-related staff responded that a full refund had been arranged. The next day, Mr. Zhang posted a video saying that the child's recharged money had been refunded.
The reporter noticed that some bloggers posted videos on social platforms complaining about the recharge loophole of the egg boy party, and the blogger said that the recharge process of the egg boy party is very simple, and children can easily pay without passwords. But after this video was released, many netizens reported that "every time you charge money, you have to have a password" and "you have to brush your face to pay".
On April 12th, the poster news reporter used an Apple mobile phone to test the recharge process in the egg boy party APP and found that whether it is a recharge of 1 yuan or a recharge of 648 yuan, the first recharge requires a password, and after selecting the recharge stall of the same price again within 15 minutes, it will be paid without password, but this is because the personal payment channel has opened the "password needs to be used after 15 minutes" option. If this option is not enabled, the password will still be required for the second recharge within a short period of time.
The reporter learned that the egg boy party game does not have an automatic deduction function, and players have previously bound automatic renewal, and the payment channel has opened password-free payment and other reasons may lead to "password-free deduction".
The Black Cat complaint platform has tens of thousands of complaints about the egg boy party
In recent years, it has been a common occurrence for minors to recharge games without their parents' knowledge. Among the top ten consumer rights protection hotspots in 2023 released by People's Daily Online, "krypton gold" for minors has become one of the hot topics. A number of game APPs were named, bluntly saying that there were large recharges by minors on the platform.
One of the top ten consumer rights protection hotspots in 2023 released by People's Daily Online: "Krypton Gold" for minors
On April 12, the poster news reporter searched for "egg boy party" as the keyword on the consumer complaint platform Black Cat Complaint, and there were 22,161 complaints, many of which were complaints about minors recharging without their parents' knowledge and asking for refunds. However, the result of most complaints ended with the response of "Your problem cannot be handled due to lack of detailed information, please follow the above guidelines to the NetEase Parental Care Platform for corresponding submission, and there will be a dedicated customer service follow-up".
One of the complaints on the Black Cat complaint platform is the reply of the egg boy party to the game party
Among them, one complainant said that the child used the reading lang to recharge 3,600 yuan, but the parents did not know about it, and the refund process was complicated, restrictive and rigid. After more than a month, the game finally agreed to a refund, but only 1,700 yuan was refunded.
One complainant said that the child used the reading lang to recharge 3,600 yuan for the egg boy party
In order to avoid disputes arising from the top-up of minors' online games, the Beijing Consumers' Association has suggested that online game operators should take effective measures through technical means in terms of top-up confirmation, top-up reminders, and restrictions on the amount of top-ups, so as to avoid the occurrence of large-amount game top-ups by minors, and that the parents of minors should also bear more care to avoid this problem. Parents should fundamentally protect their mobile phone passwords and payment passwords, and guide their children to treat online games correctly. In the event of a dispute, attention should be paid to collecting evidence to facilitate the protection of rights.
The Beijing Consumers Association issued a recommendation
The Shanghai Municipal Consumer Protection Commission said last year that the longer consumers play games, the more profit game companies will make. In order to protect the legitimate rights and interests of minors, should the relevant state departments be more scientific and effective in formulating the rules of the game addiction prevention system?