"My 6-year-old son has recharged more than 20,000 yuan playing mobile games, can you help me? On April 24, Ms. Jiang from Wuhan asked Changjiang Cloud News for help, but she encountered difficulties when applying for a full refund for minors' top-ups.
A 6-year-old boy recharged 7,776 yuan in 13 minutes
Play mobile games and recharge 24241.99 yuan
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In February this year, Ms. Jiang from Wuhan came to the bank to withdraw money because she needed money, but she found that the savings in the bank card were less than 20,000 yuan.
So Ms. Jiang checked the bill of the bank card, which directly made Ms. Jiang angry. "I was going to faint on the spot, and the bill was full of records of recharging mobile games. Ms. Jiang said.
△ Ms. Jiang's Alipay recharge record
Ms. Jiang introduced that from March 16, 2021 to January 19, 2022, in less than a year, a total of 24,241.99 yuan was recharged into multiple games on Huawei mobile phones.
Since the couple never played mobile games, Ms. Jiang immediately thought of her son, who was born in 2014.
It turned out that three years ago, due to their busy work, Ms. Jiang and her husband often did not have time to take care of their son, who was only 6 years old at the time, so she left a Huawei mobile phone at home for his son to use.
"Sometimes when we are not at home, we let him use his mobile phone to order takeout, I didn't expect him to secretly recharge mobile games, and so much, his father was so angry that he taught him a lesson on the spot. Ms. Jiang said.
Ms. Jiang showed the Changjiang Cloud News reporter the payment record of Alipay on her mobile phone. The reporter saw that from 2021 to 2022, Ms. Jiang's mobile game recharge through Alipay has as many as dozens of records, ranging from 50 yuan to more than 600 yuan, and the game name includes Plants vs. Zombies 2, Ultraman Superman vs. Little Monsters, etc., among them, nearly half of the orders are paid by "Huawei Software Technology Co., Ltd."
△ Ms. Jiang's Alipay recharge record
The shortest, the largest amount, and the largest number of recharges occurred from 19:09 to 19:22 on July 28, 2021, and within 13 minutes, Ms. Jiang's Alipay paid a total of 12 game recharges with an amount of 648 yuan, with a total recharge amount of 7,776 yuan.
When the reporter asked to see which Huawei mobile phone Ms. Jiang's son used to recharge the game, Ms. Jiang said helplessly: "On the day I found out that my son charged the game, his father smashed the Huawei mobile phone and threw it away. ”
Huawei's customer service said that it could not be refunded in full
Ms. Jiang cried: The child is about to be ruined by the game
In March this year, Ms. Jiang began to contact game companies one by one to negotiate refunds for minors.
On April 15, a game company based in Wuhan promised to refund to Ms. Jiang the 12,676 yuan that Ms. Jiang's son had recharged in the game developed by the company within 20 working days.
△ A game company in Wuhan promised a refund
However, several other game companies told Ms. Jiang that the money recharged by her son went to Huawei Software Technology Co., Ltd., and Huawei Software Technology Co., Ltd. and the game company divided it fifty-fifty, not all of which belonged to the game company, so the remaining 11,565.99 yuan recharge still needs Huawei's consent if you want to refund it.
As a result, Ms. Jiang applied for a refund from Huawei Software Technologies Co., Ltd., but the company refused to refund the game on the grounds that the game had been verified by Ms. Jiang's own real name and could not prove that it was a minor recharge. Ms. Jiang reluctantly said that the real-name authentication was completed by her son without her knowledge, "How can an adult play such a childish game?"
△ The birth certificate shows that Ms. Jiang's son was born in 2014
In desperation, Ms. Jiang began to report to a number of relevant departments in April. Finally, not long ago, Ms. Jiang waited for an email from Huawei Software Technologies Co., Ltd. about negotiating a refund. On April 17, a sender named "[email protected]" sent Ms. Jiang an email titled "Refund Materials for Minors", which showed that after verification, the props recharged by the account had been consumed and could not be refunded in full. We have obtained a partial refund of the fee for you, the refund amount: 9964 yuan.
Ms. Jiang calculated that her son recharged a total of 24,241.99 yuan, minus the 12,676 yuan that the game company in Wuhan agreed to refund, and Huawei Software Technology Co., Ltd. should have to refund 11,565.99 yuan, but Huawei's customer service deducted Ms. Jiang's 1,601.99 yuan on the grounds that the in-game recharge props had been consumed and used, and only agreed to refund 9,964 yuan.
In addition, the email also stated that in order to get a refund, Ms. Jiang also needs to provide the parent's proof of using the Huawei ID, the parent's ID photo, the child's birth certificate, the parent's relationship certificate, bank statement, Huawei ID payment certificate, and a letter of commitment.
△ The email asks Ms. Jiang to provide supporting materials
This result made Ms. Jiang very angry. "From the time I applied for a refund, I didn't know how many phone calls I made, how many places I ran, how many days I took off, and my children were about to be ruined by your game, and I didn't even take these costs into account. I have provided all the materials that should be provided, and I hope for a full refund. ”
△ Facing reporters, Ms. Jiang couldn't cry
On the morning of April 25th, the Yangtze River Cloud News reporter dialed the phone number of Huawei's official customer service, and the customer service responded to the full refund proposed by Ms. Jiang, saying that because Ms. Jiang does not accept a refund of 9964 yuan, it cannot be refunded for the time being.
In this regard, Ms. Jiang said angrily: "I have made it clear to them, and the evidence has been provided." Without the knowledge of parents, is it so difficult for a 6-year-old child to apply for a full refund for such a large amount of top-up?"
At present, Ms. Jiang has provided relevant supporting materials to Huawei officials, but due to the fact that the two parties have not yet reached an agreement on the amount of refund, Ms. Jiang said that as of April 25, she has not received a penny of refund.
On April 26, a reporter from Changjiang Cloud News called Huawei's consumer service hotline again, hoping that the other party could transfer Huawei's legal department to respond to the matter, but did not receive a reply.
The lawyer said:
Huawei should issue a full refund
There is also regulatory negligence on the part of parents
Do parents have the right to get back when minors recharge games?
On April 25, a reporter from Changjiang Cloud News interviewed Li Shi, a lawyer at Hubei Wuluo Law Firm, on this matter. He believes that according to Article 20 of the Civil Code of the People's Republic of China, minors under the age of eight are persons with no capacity for civil conduct, and their legal representatives shall act as agents to carry out civil juristic acts. "Huawei Software Technologies Co., Ltd. and the game company should give Ms. Jiang a full refund without any reason. ”
Lawyer Li Shi believes that in this dispute, Ms. Jiang's son was born in 2014 and was under the age of eight during the recharge period from 2021 to 2022. Online gaming enterprises must not provide game payment services to minors under the age of eight. "If a minor who has reached the age of eight recharges, it must be approved or recognized by the legal representative before it has legal effect, and if the parents clearly disagree, the platform shall also return the minor's recharged coins. ”
At the same time, Li Shi also believes that according to Ms. Jiang, Ms. Jiang's son's recharge behavior lasted for nearly a year, and it was not discovered until this year, indicating that parents also have a certain degree of negligence in the daily management of their children. For the juvenile game "Krypton Gold", Li Shi suggested that parents should pay more attention to their children's daily life, and do not neglect their children due to work, causing minors to become addicted to games. At the same time, when you find that a minor has recharged, you should contact the official customer service as soon as possible, provide and save the child's recharge record in the game, including the recharge time, amount and other information, keep the transaction records and payment vouchers of the payment platform to prove the authenticity of the recharge, and prepare the child's identity documents, such as household registration book, ID card, etc., for refund.
The full refund rate is 38.42%
Nearly 30% of minors failed to recharge and refund
The reporter consulted relevant information and found that in recent years, with the frequent occurrence of large-amount recharge incidents of minors, the focus of the protection of minors in the game industry has diversified from the main attack and prevention of addiction to large-amount recharge.
On February 5 this year, the "2023 China Game Corporate Social Responsibility Report" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") released by Gamma Data shows that in terms of the protection of minors, the focus of users' attention has shifted from "time limit for minors to play" to "refund for minors", and this issue may become a new focus for the protection of minors in the future.
△Data source: Gamma Data (CNG)
The report pointed out that the above-mentioned changes in focus are due to the effective solution of the problem of "minors' game time", but due to the "difficulty in determining the identity of the recharger" and other reasons, the current solution to the problem of "minors' refund" is not good, and nearly one-third of parents have failed to return the money.
Another "2023 Progress Report on the Protection of Minors in China's Game Industry" jointly compiled by the Game Working Committee of the China Audio-video and Digital Association, the China Game Industry Research Institute, and Gamma Data shows that in the refund process of underage users, more than 70% of the applications have been responded, of which 38.42% have received full refunds, and 29.38% have failed to provide valid evidence.
△Data source: Gamma Data (CNG)
In response to the problem of minors bypassing identification procedures and playing online games with large amounts of recharge, some parents have raised the question of whether game manufacturers can prevent this problem through technical means.
It is understood that at present, a number of domestic game companies have taken relevant measures. For example, since 2017, Tencent has taken the lead in implementing financial-grade face recognition, which can be used to detect whether to recharge minors through face recognition when recharging in games. NetEase, on the other hand, is the first in the industry to launch the "AI Patrol" system, which can predict and intervene in advance the abnormal registration and irrational consumption of suspected underage players, improve the accuracy of face recognition by upgrading double verification, and solve the problems of minors trying to bypass the verification mechanism.
Li Shi, a lawyer at Hubei Wuluo Law Firm, also called for parents and game providers to take responsibility for preventing minors from playing online games and recharging large amounts, and that the protection of minors in the game industry requires the joint participation of all relevant enterprises in the industry, and that game companies should actively explore measures for the protection of minors according to their own capabilities.
(Changjiang Cloud News reporter Zhang Wenjie)