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Epic Games is in the eye of the storm once again. This time, Epic has been fined by the United States' Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for violating the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the reason being collecting data from children under the age of 13 and also pairing children with other people around the world, failing to adhere to proper parental control and giving an entry for children to be harassed, bullied and threated online, for which Epic Games is being fined $275 million USD by the FTC.

Not only that, but Epic is also getting another fine regarding their in-game store and refund system, with a sum of $245 million USD. This comes from the way in which Epic lays out their button and UI configurations to trick the users into making unwanted purchases, and also, there have been mentions of parents claiming their kids make additional purchases based on the credit card information they used from a previous purchase, meaning that the subsequent purchases didn't require any form of verification or validation.

To make matters worse for Epic Games, they are currently facing a class-action lawsuit in Canada by parents claiming the game is made specifically designed in a way to make the game addictive, which might fall under the World Health Organization's definition of "gaming disorder" as an illness. Canada approved the lawsuit, and it still remains to be seen what might come out of it in court.

Epic Game's Official Post
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[K3Nv2]

Have we talked about how they put up death stranding for free for like 2 hours then went down with a 502 Gateway

 

[linuxares]

Have we talked about how they put up death stranding for free for like 2 hours then went down with a 502 Gateway View attachment 344310View attachment 344311

No, since it have nothing to do with the news. Plus that's a "Hug of death" most likely.

 

[sith]

wow this is a poorly writen article.. maybe english is a second language to "ShadowONE333"?

"on the eye of the storm once again" - You are "in" the eye not "on" it.

"failing to adequate to proper parental control" - implement??

"and opening the kids to harassment" - who are "the kids"?

"parents claiming the game is made specifically designed in a way to make the game addictive, which might fall under the World Health Organization's definition of "gaming disorder" as an illness." - they programmed the mental illness right in? also not one game is mentioned anywhere in the article yet the author is referring to "the game" i guess they assume everyone knows the only thing they could be talking about is fornite, but every single live service game and social media does this openly..

 

[HarveyHouston]

It's the responsibility of the PARENT, not the company, to keep kids from doing stupid stuff! Jeez, our government...

 

[CommanderCool]

It's the responsibility of the PARENT, not the company, to keep kids from doing stupid stuff! Jeez, our government...

who cares epic got owned revel in that.

 

[Guacaholey]

Children aren't even allowed to play Fortnite. The TOS specifies you have to be 13 and older. Laws like COPPA are ridiculous because it's incredibly easy to get around age restrictions on games or websites. I guess Google is going to have to be fined because little Timmy can Google search "porn" on his parents' phone/computer and find porn sites.

 

[phil3254]

this arguement extends far beyond that tbh i remember saying the same for beavis and butthead when it first came out and all the pissy parents or grand theft auto. You have to ask yourself time and again ...

"When does personal responsibility become a factor in this issue"

To the above commenters point if you watch a porn dvd and leave it in the dvd player then your teenage son comes along and hits play you cant blame the creator of the dvd for it, once you buy that rated product you are responsible for respecting said rating and you cant just point your finger like the family guy monkey and hope your part in being a responsible consumer (parent/guardian) goes away.

As a guardian or parent you should damn well know better than to allow content/software/hardware into the hands of children YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR.