Epic says in response that 'the old status quo for in-game commerce and privacy has changed, and many developer practices should be reconsidered'.
There are two settlements. Epic will pay a $275 million penalty for violating the COPPA rule— the largest penalty ever levied for violating an FTC rule. As part of this agreement Epic will also adopt"strong privacy default settings for children and teens," meaning communications via voice and text will be turned off by default.
The failure to notify parents and obtain consent seems to be the real biggie here, with the FTC saying Epic knew a huge part of Fortnite's audience was children and didn't take this seriously enough . It also says that Epic"required parents who requested that their children’s personal information be deleted jump through unreasonable hoops, and sometimes failed to honor such requests".
Part of this is also that until 2018 buying V-Bucks, Fortnite's in-game currency, had fewer checks on it, so once an account was linked up to a payment method kids could buy V-Bucks without their parents realising. Similar claims have been brought against other big tech companies in different contexts, most notably Apple and the App Store.
"No developer creates a game with the intention of ending up here," Epic's statement reads, before going on to describe the games industry as a fast-moving and innovative space that has simply got ahead of statutes"written decades ago [that] don’t specify how gaming ecosystems should operate. The laws have not changed, but their application has evolved and long-standing industry practices are no longer enough".
Parental Controls that are easily accessible in the main Fortnite Lobby menu and the Epic Account portal.
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