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Parents have expressed concern about the costly impact video games have on their children.
Michael and Jennifer Ferri couldn't believe their eyes when they discovered $4,000 left on their credit card for video games from their 8-year-old son Joey. “I mean, I lost my mind,” Jennifer recently confessed. Good morning, America.
However, no matter how angry she and her husband were, Joey revealed that she did not intentionally spend the money because she thought her purchases existed only in the game's virtual world.
“I think sometimes people get confused about what is real money and what is fake money,” Michael said.
Game assets, the medium of exchange used for transactions in video games and virtual worlds, are often assumed by young players to have no real value in real life, but that's not true. These assets are used to purchase “goods, services, and transactions between individuals.” [“P2P”] According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB),
The CFPB explains that “gaming assets enter and exit gaming markets in a variety of ways and can have incalculable value.”
“To capitalize on that value, financial products and services are starting to enter the game in the form of payment processing, money transfers, and even loans,” they continue.
In July 2023, the Entertainment Software Association reported that three out of four children under the age of 18 regularly play video games.
Additionally, the CFPB notes that “billions of US dollars are spent on games and virtual worlds each year, with consumers using fiat currency to purchase game assets and using those assets to make in-game purchases. “There is.”
Specifically, the CFPB estimates that $57 billion is spent on video games each year.
As virtual spending soars, the CFPB is warning users of the risks of scams and scams. CFPB Director Rohit Chopra told ABC News that using virtual currency to purchase in-game additives is not always safe.
“What is quite clear is that Financial incentives are meant to get players to spend as much as possible,” Chopra admitted. Gaming accounts do not necessarily have the same protections and security measures that real-world bank accounts have.
“If there is a fraudulent charge on your credit card, we can fight it,” he said. “What we often see with these gaming platforms is they just point fingers or they don't actually take responsibility.
“You shouldn't think of this as a traditional video game. It's an immersive world. [with] own economy.But what we want to check is [of] It's not just a way to circumvent existing rules. ”
