Video game studios are freely disregarding legal frameworks and exploiting the privacy and data information of the children who play their games, according to a comprehensive new study of North American video game privacy policies.
"This is nothing short of scandalous," says professor Thomas Burelli, Professor of Law (Civil Law Section) at the University of Ottawa, co-author of the study. "Of the 139 privacy policies we studied, none fully comply with existing legal frameworks, whether they be American, Canadian or from Quebec."
Researchers from uOttawa, the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) and McGill University found the highly opaque system of data collection in the highly lucrative video game market used by developers and third-party companies demonstrated malicious intent, as the major players override children's rights to collect personal data through game applications.
"Video game studios ask parents to agree to privacy policies that are very complex to understand and sometimes contradictory, and whose legality is highly questionable," explains Burelli. "Video game studios are banking on the fact that parents are unlikely to take the time to read the privacy policies in their entirety, and even if they do, will not complain considering the complexity of the procedure to do so."
Burelli and co-authors Maude Bonenfant (UQAM), Sara Grimes (McGill), Hafedh Mili (UQAM) and Jean Privat (UQAM) analyzed the privacy policies of video games for children under 13 (under 14 in Quebec) in relation to legal obligations in the United States, Canada and in Quebec. A total of 139 policies were analysed, which included 84 relating to free games, 2 relating to free and paid games (freemium) and 53 relating to paid games (premium).
The findings demonstrate an urgent need for governments to enact legislative action and predict a quagmire of potential legal issues for video game makers with approximately 39% of Canadian children between the ages of 6 and 17 confirmed as gamers. A class action lawsuit against the mobile gaming industry over allegations of serious violations of children's privacy righthas already been launched in Quebec.
"This study could lead to legal action against studios whose abusive practices have been identified and to legal reforms as there is a real need for legislative intervention to regulate the practices of studios," says Burelli. "Self-regulation by industry players (studios and classification bodies) is not working it does not protect children's interests with regard to their data."
"Not only do children and parent not have access to the good information to provide clear consent but, in addition, misleading information provides a false sense of security, particularly if the game's appearance s childish and innocent," says Bonenfant.
Consult the full report - Dangerous Games: Protecting the privacy of children under 13 in video games (in French).
