Lawsuit Reveals How Facebook Profited Off Confused Children: Report (salon.com)

Documents outlining how Facebook profited off children are expected to be made public soon, according to Reveal News of the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR), who requested the documents. From a report: In a report about the trove of previously-sealed documents, Reveal News explains that Facebook has previously faced lawsuits for failing to refund charges made by children playing games on Facebook. According to Reveal, the children did not know that their parent's credit card was stored on the platform when they clicked "buy," and in some cases, hundreds or even thousands of dollars were spent. In one case, the plaintiff, who is a child, spent several hundreds of dollars in just a few weeks. According to the report, more documents show "widespread confusion by children and their parents, who didn't understand Facebook continued to charge them as they played games."

Comments

Null AND Void

[sdinfoserv]

I believe from the very beginning, Facebook's business social model was and continues to be mostly illegal. In the US, minors can't sign contracts. Any contract with a minor is considered 'null and void'. Therefore minors can not agree to any ELU (end user license agreement). Thus any data collect by the activity of a minor is illegally obtained.

Game on Facebook, charged through Facebook

[SuperKendall]

Why does Facebook have anyone's credit card on file in the first place?

If you read the first part of the article (ahem), it says:

The child, referred to as âoeI.B.â in the case, did not know the social media giant had stored his momâ(TM)s payment information. As he continued to play the game, Ninja Saga, Facebook continued to charge his momâ(TM)s credit card, racking up several hundred dollars in just a few weeks.

But unlike iOS or Android, where often kids overcharging without parents knowing about it and they get refunded, Facebook was apparently a lot less lenient about refunds.