A trove of internal documents have revealed how Facebook was concerned children were spending large amounts on in-app payments without parents’ permission – but seemingly chose not to act.
Discussions showed the firm decided not to implement certain safeguards as it might affect overall revenues from people paying for games.
The documents formed part of a lawsuit that was settled in 2016, after which Facebook agreed to change its practices.
Between February 2008 and June 2014, Facebook said it made just over $34m from accounts belonging to minors in the United States.
The information had been kept under seal, until the Center for Investigative Reporting recently made a request for them to be made public. Last week a judge ordered Facebook to provide the extra material. It did so on Thursday.
The files show discussions between Facebook employees about how in-app payments were occurring within the platform, and whether children might be unwittingly spending real money during games.
Tara Stewart, a risk analyst for Facebook, remarked that in-game currency often “doesn’t necessarily look like real money to a minor”.
The investigation was prompted by Finnish game developer Rovio.
It told Facebook it had noticed an “alarmingly high refund rate”, caused by what is known as “friendly fraud”.
The term typically refers to instances when parents discovered a child has been using their credit card to buy features or add-ons in a game.
