Gaming service ordered to refund money spent by boy

Platform responsible for loophole allowing minors to evade supervision

An online gaming firm was recently ordered by a Beijing court to return most of the money a boy spent on its platform because of loopholes in its implementation of real-name registration.

The case was filed with the Beijing Internet Court after the child's parents discovered their son used his mother's identity to register for the platform in September to extend his playing time, and spent more than 130,000 yuan ($17,900) on virtual equipment in games over 30 days.

The parents asked for a refund of the top-up fees, as they believed that the behavior of their child, who was less than 10 years old, should be deemed invalid in accordance with civil laws, while the defendant refused to return the money, arguing that the real-name information was the mother's, an adult with civil liability.