On December 27, CNET (reporter Shan Zhengyu), in November 2019, the so-called "anti addiction online game policy", which is the strictest in history, was introduced. The Notice on Preventing Minors from Addicting to Online Games issued by the State Press and Publication Administration has made detailed regulations on the identity verification, game duration, and payment of minors' game users.

However, just more than a month after the new regulations were introduced, Chinanet Technology received complaints from many parents that the OPPO mobile phone's "game center" did not fulfill its responsibility to verify the identity of minors and could log in by default using the mobile phone number, which not only led to minor children bypassing the real name authentication and anti addiction system, but also indulged in online games for a long time, The game is also recharged frequently through parents' WeChat or Alipay.

In an interview with Chinanet Technology, OPPO did not respond to the problem of the lack of identity verification link for game users, saying that many adult users are also complaining under the banner of minors, with the purpose of "handling game refund through appeal". OPPO also claimed that if the complainant wants to refund the fee, he should bear the burden of proof, Take out evidence to prove that the money was paid by minors.

OPPO is accused of "no defense" against minors' addiction to online games

"In just 30 minutes, he has recharged a game eight times in a row". Mr. Wu from Beijing reported to Chinanet Technology that his son, who is only 4 years old, downloaded "Wild Racing 9" through the OPPO app store without his parents' knowledge, and consumed 4019 yuan at a time.

To Mr. Wu's surprise, he complained to the game developer and OPPO customer service several times, but the money could not be returned. OPPO customer service replied that Mr. Wu could not prove that the money was a minor's recharge and could not be refunded.

In Mr. Wu's opinion, the main reason for his 4-year-old son's addiction to games and so much recharge is that OPPO and Guangdong Huantai Technology Co., Ltd. (the developer of Wild Racing 9 games) failed to perform their responsibilities of identity verification and real name authentication, and the supervision of minors' access to games was completely out of control.

In addition, Ms. Zhao from Dalian also recently complained to Chinanet Technology that her 10-year-old son used his parents' OPPO mobile phone to play games for a long time without their parents' knowledge, and continuously recharged and bought more than 8000 yuan of game props. She fed the question back to OPPO customer service, and the reply was that "the complainant could not prove that minors were playing games, so it was not accepted".

Recommending games to earn commissions has become an important source of income for mobile phone manufacturers

According to the survey by the science and technology reporter of Chinanet, in recent years, many game companies, such as Tencent and NetEase, have adopted many methods to solve the problem of minors entering and indulging in games, such as implementing strict real name authentication system control, adopting AI face recognition proofreading, and establishing an anti addiction system for minors.

However, some small and medium-sized game developers will still ignore the regulatory requirements and take "unconventional measures" to bypass the real name certification regulation in order to maximize benefits.

　　 "Because Alipay, WeChat and other payment platforms have real name authentication, many game companies, in order to reduce development costs and lower the threshold for users to enter the game, simply 'build a bridge' between the game and the payment platform, and do a related authentication. As long as users complete the recharge behavior in the game, they will indirectly complete the real account through the payment channel Name authentication. But this practice actually caused the lack of supervision of minors entering the game. " Some industry analysts said.

In addition, the above industry figures also said that against the backdrop of intensifying competition in the mobile phone hardware market, game "distribution" commissions have increasingly become an important source of income for mobile phone manufacturers, and the application market and game store built into brand mobile phones have become an important entrance to reach users and earn commission, "For mobile phone manufacturers, as long as users download mobile games in their stores, the more they recharge, the greater their income will be."

In the third party complaint platform "Black Cat Complaint", Chinanet Technology found that in 2019 alone, there were 52 complaints about the games released by OPPO's mobile phone "Game Center", which failed to carry out real name authentication as required by the state and led to minors' addiction to games. Many complaints are still "unresolved".

(Source: Xinhuanet)