Japanese National Consumer Affairs Center reported that unauthorized spending by Japanese kids in online games on smart phones and other devices has been on the rise since reaching over 4,000 cases in 2022, averaging charges of 330,000 yen ($2245 as of the time of writing this) per incident and up to millions of yen without permission or consent from their parents or legal guardians.
According to the report by the Affairs Center, there were 4,024 complaints about “children making payments without permission” in 2022, mostly in online games, with kids ranging from elementary school to high school, giving an age range from 6 to 17 years old.
While it’s only halfway into March of 2024, there have already been 3,100 complaints received, and the National Consumer Affairs Center of Japan is warning the youth not to share their passwords and to keep their usage in check as well as parents to have an eye on their kids play time on mentioned devices.
It’s worth noting there that a recent study by NTT Docomo has shown that Japanese middle school students and older have been addicted to games on smartphones and other devices more than ever in history, so the rise in unauthorized spending was sadly to be expected at this point.
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