Epic Games to pay $520M to resolve FTC allegations

Re:Epic Games to pay $520M to resolve FTC allegations by zamadatix on Monday December 19, 2022 @10:26AM (#34053139)

Love Rec Room :)

But this is basically the button press the GP was talking about, during sign up (which can be separate from the main sign up on the same device) the kid just says they were born in 1912 and now the mic works. Yes it's compliant with the law but it's the same problem GP was actually talking about - there is no real verification.

Having parental controlled accounts is a nice feature in general though, regardless of the legal requirements. Ultimately things like this come down to making good parenting easier and that can help.

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Re:Epic Games to pay $520M to resolve FTC allegations by TedDoesntTalk on Monday December 19, 2022 @11:44AM (#34054208)

I think the idea is that parents are supposed to create accounts on Epic and Steam, not children. The parent selects the correct age during account creation.

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Re:Epic Games to pay $520M to resolve FTC allegations by temprose on Monday December 19, 2022 @12:06PM (#34054507)

What's stopping the kid from making a new account though? Knowing myself, I did similar things as a child especially since my parents were not very tech literate.

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Re:Epic Games to pay $520M to resolve FTC allegations by robertlagrant on Monday December 19, 2022 @12:06PM (#34054515)

Exactly. It's a well-armoured safe door on a safe with no sides.

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Re:Epic Games to pay $520M to resolve FTC allegations by HDThoreaun on Monday December 19, 2022 @01:43PM (#34055876)

100% stopping kids in voice chat isn't the goal. Stopping kids from accidentality joining voice chat is.

So nothing is stopping them from purposefully getting a chat activated account, that's the point.

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Re:Epic Games to pay $520M to resolve FTC allegations by zamadatix on Monday December 19, 2022 @09:58PM (#34060991)

The law itself disagrees. It's quite explicit that the point is to not allow kids into chat rooms at all without parental consent. It does not mention anything about preventing kids from accidentally joining chat just that they are not the ones able to provide consent to allow chat.

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Re:Epic Games to pay $520M to resolve FTC allegations by P5fRxh5kUvp2th on Tuesday December 20, 2022 @05:38AM (#34064080)

Is your argument that the law specifically has language interpreting its goal?

Can you quote it please, because I find that surprising.

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Re:Epic Games to pay $520M to resolve FTC allegations by TedDoesntTalk on Monday December 19, 2022 @01:47PM (#34055923)

Voice chat without parental approval is less likely to happen if the device is in public space in the residence.

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Re:Epic Games to pay $520M to resolve FTC allegations by zamadatix on Monday December 19, 2022 @10:00PM (#34061004)

This is true independent of the law.

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Re:Epic Games to pay $520M to resolve FTC allegations by kbelder on Monday December 19, 2022 @07:30PM (#34059897)

I've made fake accounts for my kids where I lied about their age, in order to bypass certain restrictions. That's how screwed up our legislation is in this area.

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