Children need stronger legal protection in the virtual world
Young people are big spenders of virtual money online. In an interview with 'NRC' newspaper, Simone van der Hof, Professor of Law and Digital Technologies in Leiden, warns that existing legal frameworks have too little grip on the virtual world.
On TikTok, livestreams are flooded with virtual roses, rockets and ‘money guns’ that viewers gift to streamers. Behind these animations lies real money: a rose costs almost €0.02, while the most expensive gift, the ‘TikTok Universe’ animation, costs more than €650. But TikTok is not the only platform with a virtual currency. Fortnite has V-Bucks, Roblox has Robux, and YouTube and Twitch each have their own currencies.
Research commissioned by the UK communications services regulator Ofcom shows that more than half of teenagers make purchases within games or on social media, and that 30 to 40 percent later regret what they spent. According to Van der Hof, legal thinking about children online still focuses primarily on privacy and screen time. ‘In theory, children do not, for example, have a right to consumer protection except through their parents,’ she told NRC. ‘Yet they are active participants in that digital world.’
Learning how to manage money
So, should children be banned from making virtual payments? That is not the solution Van der Hof would choose. She points out that teenagers also have a right to participate in economic life. And learning how to manage money is part of growing up, including the virtual world. ‘Children also get pocket money – the whole point is that they learn how to handle their own money and about buying things,’ she says.
However, she argues that in gaming environments, more clarity is needed about what something actually costs. ‘If you buy something for 20 Robux, that's the equivalent of three euros.’ That kind of transparency should be the norm. She describes TikTok’s fluctuating prices as ‘problematic’. Young people do not properly develop a sense of what they are spending. In practice, their grasp of the real-world value of money gradually erodes, even though that understanding is precisely what children need in order to learn how to manage money.