Sweden's consumers, together with 20 other consumer organizations, are reporting some of the gaming world's largest giants to the EU's network of consumer authorities. The organizations claim that the games manipulate children to make in-game purchases.
Petra's nine-year-old daughter was tempted by the idea of tens of thousands of robux, the virtual currency in the game "Roblox". Her mother was busy, but the daughter knew the password and could easily approve the purchase on her own, one day in early July.
She didn't understand that it was expensive. I've approved quite a few of those small purchases of nine kronor and so on. She probably thought it wouldn't matter, I can do it myself when mom is busy.
The next day, Petra, who lives in the Gothenburg area and actually has a different name, discovered that a purchase of 2,595 kronor had been made.
At first, she just denied it, says Petra.
Then she became completely devastated, actually. I didn't think it through, and said "well, then the birthday present is clear". And then she became completely crushed, says she.
It became a lengthy process to get the money back, through complaints to Apple (since the purchase was made on an iPad) and the National Board for Consumer Complaints.
Luckily, we got the money back and it became real birthday presents in the real world instead, says she.
There's been no more nagging about buying robux since then.
I think she got a good scare from this, says Petra.
