REVEALED: Facebook ‘deliberately duped’ children into racking up bills into the thousands playing online games – even referring to them as ‘whales’
January 21, 2019 in News by RBN Staff
has been ordered to unseal a trove of documents related to a 2012 lawsuit against the social media giant in which children, often unwittingly, racked up massive bills on their parents accounts playing games on the site.
The United States District Court on Monday gave Facebook ten days to file unredacted documents in response to a request from Reveal, the news agency of The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR).
Announcing its victory last week, Reveal wrote: ‘A glimpse into the soon-to-be-released records shows Facebook’s own employees worried they were bamboozling children who racked up hundreds, and sometimes even thousands, of dollars in game charges.
‘And the company failed to provide an effective way for unsuspecting parents to dispute the massive charges, according to internal Facebook records.’
According to the documents, Facebook employees were aware that children were spending money without their parents’ knowledge.
Facebook has been ordered to unseal a trove of redacted documents related to a 2012 lawsuit against the social media giant in which children, often unwittingly, racked up massive bills on their parents accounts playing games on the site. The suit accused Facebook of knowingly profiting off of confused children and unsuspecting parents by refusing to refund the charges
The lead plaintiff in the suit, which has been kept under wraps for years, was a child who used his mother’s credit card one time to pay $20 while playing Ninja Saga on Facebook.
The child, referred to as ‘I.B.’ in the documents, was unaware that the site had stored his mom’s payment information. So as he continued playing the game, he thought that his later purchases were made with ‘virtual currency’.
When the credit card bill came a few weeks later, the mother was shocked to find several hundred dollars of charges from the game.
She reached out to Facebook to refund the money, saying that she had never authorized the charges beyond the original $20.
However, the company never provided a refund, so the family resorted to a lawsuit.
The documents allegedly describe widespread confusion of both parents and children over the ongoing charges.
When Facebook employees voiced their concerns, the company reportedly analyzed cases involving Angry Birds, which revealed the average player age was just five years old.
‘In nearly all cases the parents knew their child was playing Angry Birds, but didn’t think the child would be allowed to buy anything without their password or authorization first,’ according to an internal Facebook memo obtained by Reveal.
One Facebook employee emphasized that children could easily be confused by in-app purchases because it ‘doesn’t necessarily look like real money to a minor’.
The United States District Court on Monday gave Facebook ten days to file unredacted documents, meaning that they will be released by Thursday. The ruling came in response to a request from Reveal, the news agency of The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR)
Even after the issue was brought up, however, the company kept denying refunds, Reveal said.
‘In one of the unsealed documents, two Facebook employees deny a refund request from a child whom they refer to as a “whale” – a term coined by the casino industry to describe profligate spenders,’ the outlet wrote.
‘The child had entered a credit card number to play a game, and in about two weeks racked up thousands of dollars in charges, according to an excerpt of messages between two employees at the social media giant.’
That excerpt is seen below:
Gillian: Would you refund this whale ticket? User is disputing ALL charges…
Michael: What’s the users total lifetime spend?
Gillian: It’s $6,545 – but card was just added on Sept. 2. They are disputing all of it I believe. That user looks underage as well. Well, maybe not under 13.
Michael: Is the user writing in a parent, or is this user a 13ish year old
Gillian: It’s a 13ish yr old. says its 15. looks a bit younger. she* not its. Lol.
Michael: … I wouldn’t refund
Gillian: Oh that’s fine. cool. agreed. just double checking
Facebook and the plaintiffs came to a settlement in 2016, and three years later the documents are seeing the light.
In his decision to unseal some of the documents, the judge stated: ‘This information would be of great public interest, particularly since it relates specifically to Facebook’s transactions with minors.’
He agreed to keep some of the records sealed at the social media giant’s request.
When contacted for comment by Reveal, Facebook said: ‘We appreciate the court’s careful review of these materials.’
An attorney for the families, Ben Edelman, said: ‘I’m glad to hear the public will get to learn more about this matter.’
