Recently, many parents have complained that the game " Genshin Impact " refused to refund the amount of recharge for minors. It is said that the child recharged in the "Genshin Impact" game of Shanghai Miha Youying Iron Technology Co., Ltd. without the parents' knowledge, with the amount ranging from thousands to more than 20,000 yuan. When applying for a refund, Mihayou Company refused to refund due to reasons such as "the account ownership cannot be verified", and parents faced problems such as "difficulty in providing evidence". At the same time, many other parents have reported that "Genshin Impact" has problems such as inducing excessive consumption.
Mihayou Mihayou Mihayou Mihayou Mihayou
In response to this incident, Weibo user @Ye Lingjiu commented, "Mihayou turned a blind eye to the virtual ID card of the game", @yss45 believes that "it is because of Mihayou's failure to implement the anti-addiction convention for minors."
Source: Weibo
Source: Weibo
Source: Weibo
Mihayou Company has had similar public opinion many times. Currently, the keywords "Genshin Impact" and "Minor" are used in the Black Cat Complaint platform to search, showing 429 results. The complaints are mostly "invalid communication with customer service", "no reply, no refund", etc., and the appeals are mostly "refunds" and "improving services".
Image source: Black Cat Complaint Platform
Minor large-scale game recharge incidents have occurred frequently, and
related policies have been introduced to regulate and govern
In recent years, minors have used their parents to reward anchors, game recharges and other news have been frequently seen in the newspapers, and problems such as online game consumption for minors are becoming increasingly prominent. In the first half of 2022, the National Consumer Association accepted 18,075 online game complaints, an increase of about 22.26% year-on-year.
In response to disputes caused by minors paying a large amount for recharge and "reward" for online games or online live broadcast platforms, on May 15, 2020, the Supreme People's Court issued the "Guiding Opinions on Properly Trialing Several Issues in the Proper Trial of Civil Cases Related to the New Coronavirus Pneumonia Epidemic in accordance with the Law (II)", which clearly states that persons with limited civil capacity (minors over 8 years old) participate in online paid games or online live broadcast platforms without the consent of their guardians and spend money that is not in line with their age and intelligence, and the guardian requests the Internet service provider to return the money, the people's court should support it. In the "Report on Major Complaints of Online Game Consumers" released by China Consumers Association , it is mentioned that at present, there are still problems in online games that prevents minors from becoming addicted to online games . For example, the real-name authentication of online game companies is not implemented in place, minors can easily log in using other people's identities, and the lack of parental monitoring mechanism for some online games.
"Refund for minors" gray industry has attracted attention, and
game manufacturers are in a dilemma of "self-protection" and "refunds"
It is worth noting that "refund for minors" has become a gray industry at present. In some online communities, you can even see various strategies to guide the operation of "experience first, refund later", and even guide adults to disguise themselves as minors to make refunds. Faced with such a situation, game companies are also "vulnerable groups" in some cases, and if they are not handled properly, they are likely to leave a bad reputation in the outside world. What's more, the use of "minor refunds" has been developed into a gray industry. According to " Law Daily ", there is a group active on some online platforms. They specifically help minors refund money. Most of them contact buyers through private chats, then switch to the platform to conduct transactions, and secretly cheat money with excuses such as "information fees" and "advance payment".
1 Shortly after the start of September, the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays will be the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays, which will have objective factors to promote the growth of public opinion related to youth in the game field. The time when this incident happened came just after the major update of the game "Genshin Impact". The originally excellent publicity opportunity was taken away by negative public opinion, and Mihayou should learn from this incident.Minors are the future of the motherland, and any business behavior must comply with the relevant national protection regulations for minors. Game companies should thoroughly implement the Convention on Prevention of Addiction for Minors. With the release of a new batch of game version number in August, game manufacturers have woken up from their dormancy and are eager to try it out. From the perspective of corporate operations, game optimization for minors is still a key link in game operations. Faced with the gray industries related to "minor refunds" derived from the market, game companies should work with relevant departments to safeguard their legitimate rights and interests in accordance with the law, and actively use advanced means such as artificial intelligence and anti-cheating to prevent the "gray industries" from taking advantage of the situation.
Author: Liu Xuelun, assistant researcher at People's Daily New Media Think Tank, intern assistant researcher Chen Tianyi,
