Financial Services Association, May 28 (Reporter Cui Ming) “How can underage game purchases be refunded? How many refunds? Who is responsible?” These issues, which have had some social controversy in the past, now have more clear standards and reference bases. The first refund standard for underage games was released today. Industry insiders told the Financial Association reporter that the standard further clarifies the material requirements, processing procedures, judgment criteria and allocation of responsibilities for underage refund applications, and is conducive to the healthy development of the game industry.

This evening, the China Internet Association issued the “Requirements for the Management of the Consumption of Online Game Services for Minors (Draft for Comments)” group standards (hereinafter referred to as group standards). This is the first domestic standard for refunds for underage games. Once released, it quickly caused a stir in the industry.

According to Huang Chengqing, director of the Internet Protection and Development Working Committee for Minors of the China Internet Association and vice chairman of the China Internet Association, the background of the introduction of the group standard is that there are currently individual online game service providers that take advantage of luck and adaptations in promoting the prevention of online game addiction, and there are also situations where a large number of guardians have miskept personal identification information and even actively provided adults to disrupt online game addiction prevention systems. Ultimately, the conflict centered on refunds.

In response to the issue of game refunds for minors, the group's standards are clear: online game service providers, guardians, etc. shall bear corresponding responsibilities according to their own fault circumstances, and the party at fault shall pay compensation to the other party for financial losses suffered as a result. If all parties are at fault, the guardians and online game service providers shall bear their own responsibilities.

For the definition of “fault,” group standards also provide corresponding reference scenarios and recommended liability ratios. Among them, online game service providers that do not connect to the real-name authentication system or fail to implement recharge limit requirements, causing minors to overrecharge, will bear 100% responsibility.

If the online game service provider has configured anti-addiction measures in accordance with laws and regulations because the guardian helps the minor bypass the anti-addiction restrictions, or if the guardian does not fully perform the guardianship duties, then the online game service provider shall bear corresponding responsibility according to the effectiveness of the anti-addiction measures during the relevant consumption process. The recommended liability ratio is 30% to 70%, and the guardian bears the remaining responsibility.

After a refund, the online game service provider may reasonably ban the game account involved in the refund application based on circumstances such as underage protection, online game addiction prevention, real-name system requirements, and guardian requests.

Group standards also require that for users over the age of 8 and under 16, the single recharge amount for game payment services provided by the same online game service provider must not exceed 50 yuan, and the cumulative monthly recharge amount must not exceed 200 yuan; for users aged 16 and under 18, the single recharge amount for game payment services provided by the same online game service provider must not exceed 100 yuan, and the cumulative monthly recharge amount must not exceed 400 yuan.

With the release of group standards, the issue of refunds for minors began to move towards “evidence-based”, which also consolidated the game industry's long-standing anti-addiction achievements.

Earlier, on August 30, 2021, the State Press and Publication Administration issued the “Notice on Further Strict Management to Effectively Prevent Minors from Becoming Addicted to Online Games”, known as “the Strictest New Regulation to Prevent Addiction in History”. The new regulations require that all online game companies only provide 1 hour of service to minors every day from 20:00 to 21:00 on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays.

Since then, the problem of underage gaming addiction has been further solved, and China's game industry and the protection of gaming minors have entered a new stage. On this basis, how to continue to consolidate the results of preventing addiction has always been an important topic of thought for all sectors of society.

Yao Zhiwei, a professor at Guangdong University of Finance and Economics Law School, said in an interview that the introduction of the group's standards provides a standardized path for minors and parents to claim their rights and interests, and provides a disposal template for enterprises to respond to refund claims, so that enterprises “have rules to follow” and handle refund disputes more standardized and rationalized, which is conducive to effectively protecting the legal rights and interests of minors.

“Internet governance, including the protection of minors, is inseparable from the participation of industry players. Only when industry players actively participate in governance work and collaborate with the judicial authorities and all parties in society to explore effective solutions can they form joint efforts to deal with related issues efficiently.” Yao Zhiwei said.