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EA_Darko's avatar
EA_Darko
Icon for Community Manager rankCommunity Manager
8 years ago

Re: Error 524, my sons sub account on Xbox live is unable to get online

Hey all, if the account unable to access the game is an underage account then due to the COPPA law it is not possible for underage children to access the online aspect of many titles. Your children will be able to play certain parts of the game such as single player and offline content, which you can set up by following the instructions here: https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/account/give-your-child-access-to-games-on-their-child-account

9 Replies

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    8 years ago
    COPPA is a USA law and I am not in the USA and the law does not apply. In Canada, parents have the right to choose and Xbox gives me enough control through family settings to protect my 14 year old child.

    If I also read COPPA correctly, the law does not require that children not be allowed to participate, but must obtain permission from a parent or guardian. I give my child permission to play a star wars video game. I have that right and the fact that a paid for the game gives me the privilege.

    I am not a lawyer, but still an educated man and expect EA to issue a refund to my purchases if they can not deliver what the online store states is available to play without stating restrictions.

    In fact I purchased the game in my son's account, a 14 year old account and there was no indication during purchase of any restrictions. If you are going to stick to your USA laws, then put them in front of your consumers giving you money and not hidden afterwards.

    I am now cancelling my EA subscription and plan to avoid all EA products ubless they stand up and do what's right, allow parents to decide what is best for their children: especially in different countries than your laws govern.
  • EA_Darko's avatar
    EA_Darko
    Icon for Community Manager rankCommunity Manager
    8 years ago

    @rcmacdon The best thing to do is speak with one of our live agents who can take a look at your son's account. You can set up a callback or chat with a live adviser through our live support at help.ea.com  

    To request a callback or speak with a chat adviser:

    Click on your product Origin

    Then select 'PC

    Manage my Account'
    Can't log in
     
    Finally, you can choose to receive a callback or begin a chat
  • EA_Jason's avatar
    EA_Jason
    Icon for EA SPORTS FC™ Team rankEA SPORTS FC™ Team
    8 years ago

    Hi @rcmacdon,

    I understand that you feel like your son cannot access a portion of the game due to error 524 and I would like to help you figure out why this is.

    Now there are several things you could check to see if he is eligible to access the online features:

    - Check to see if he has an overage Origin account. With an overage account you can log into the origin.com website using the e-mail address. An underage account can only log into the client using the username.

    - You can see the linked Xbox account to the EA account by clicking on this link.

    - An EA Help Advisor could help you determine if the EA account is underage.

    - Make sure that his Xbox account is linked as a Family Member to the account with Xbox Live Gold.

    - Check the Privacy Settings for his account.

    If all of the above checks out, your son might need a full access account for Xbox. Typically, you have to be 18 years old to have a full access account for Xbox. Please contact Xbox support for more information. 

  • DangerMoose57's avatar
    DangerMoose57
    8 years ago

    This is a lie. That's not how COPPA law works. Not in the US. Not anywhere. 

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    8 years ago
    I am in agreeable with canceling all EA Subscriptions and banning EA products from being purchased. The same issue arises in every EA game I own. I bought a deluxe edition of this game for my sons birthday and he has no access to the online functions. No law bans children from playing only that it requires them to give permission for them to play it. You guys do not post anywhere online in on store when you go to purchase any EA game stating this restriction. Refund the cost of the game is the only option since you have clearly stated that EA’s stance is that it will not remove this restriction due to the fact that it is following “US laws.” Fix it or refund, either way, EA is banned from this household.
  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    8 years ago
    I totally agree with you

    I just downloaded battlefront 2 over the period of two days. Only to find out that I cannot play anything even though my settings have no restrictions. Don’t play around ea we want answers- we all do
  • azbiohaz's avatar
    azbiohaz
    8 years ago

    Related thread here as well:

    https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/Xbox-Attempt-to-connect-to-online-error-code-524/m-p/6535734/highlight/true#M3738

    Don't waste your time on the live agents.  If you check my post on there, it is the chat dialog with me and a rep.  There is 0 help for this and no one from EA actually cares to understand the situation.  EA continues to hide behind vague and incomplete data and never gives a full detailed understanding of WHY BF2 will not accept the parental controls defined within the Child Accounts Xbox settings.

    The other thing I find completely baffling and absurd is this:

    https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/account/give-your-child-access-to-games-on-their-child-account

    In this article it has a section labeled:

    "What EA games can I let my child play online?"

    The games I found to be most interesting is the ability for CHILD accounts to have online access to Battlefield games.  These games are rated as MATURE where BF2 is rated as Teen.  Why would you grant access to a Mature game but not a Teen game?

    In addition, they continue to try and hide behind COPAA.  However, this doesn't explain why Child Accounts are allowed to play other games online.  The same child account that can't play BF2 because of COPAA can play NHL 17 online.  What's the difference?

    I wasn't going to buy this game because of the micro-transaction issue.  They rolled that back and got my interest.  Now, my kids are not able to play online with their friends.  I am jumping on the EA ban bandwagon.  It's a shame because they continue to get such great IP but they continue to kill the experience with their lack of care for their customer.  

  • sicarius1120's avatar
    sicarius1120
    8 years ago
    This entire thing is asinine.

    I bought an Xbox One for Christmas specifically so my son and daughter could play BF2. There is zero mention on the game cover about the age limitations. There is zero mention during the account setup process about the age limitations.
    Then the kids try to play the game and we get an error. No explanation, just an error that their game won't work.
    Now I, as the parent, have to waste hours digging through the internet to find out that this is just EA "working as intended" all along.

    EA - this is a complete misrepresentation and a farce that you would allow this to not only exist, but continue to plague family gamers. The very demographic you should be trying to win in order to have a future is the one you are alienating.

    Further, COPPA absolutely does NOT prevent a child from being able to participate in this type of online experience. From what I am reading, it seems many of your agents/managers are using this as the reason for the age restriction.
    This sounds like a blanket attempt to remove yourselves from any possible exposure because you aren't capable of properly managing your own data mining procedure.
    Cut the * EA. This is complete and total garbage. You've designed an amazing game and then destroyed it by acting like a bunch of bureaucratic imbeciles.
  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    8 years ago

    @EA_Darko

    While it's true that EA won't enable child accounts for Battlefront 2 online content, it's entirely untrue that COPPA is the cause or that EA is uniformly enforcing COPPA.  

    1) EA is enforcing child restrictions in a much more Draconian way for Battlefront 2 than it is for other EA titles.  As many have posted, FIFA works just fine.

    2) EA is actively telling people in help to work with Microsoft's parental permissions, while knowing full well that Origin is ignoring those designations for Battlefield 2.

    3) EA isn't actually enforcing COPPA, as you can sign on to EA systems with the exact same child ID information and a different birth date and EA welcomes them with open arms into their online content.

    4) EA is offering a significant portion of their Battlefront 2 value online, while locking out most of their target audience from said online content and offering zero in the way of restitution.  I've seen other posts on AHQ defending this that amount to "read the fine print" and on top of that, the fine print is wrong as there are many kids above COPPA age who cannot access Battlefront 2 due to EA's poor implementation. 

    5) As posted elsewhere in this thread, COPPA is fine with parental permissions, but EA isn't.

    EA is effectively forcing parents out of Microsoft's pretty well-thought-through permissions system if their kids want to play the Star Wars game they got for Christmas.  And they're doing it out of fear of loot box gambling lawsuits specific to Battlefront 2, not out of COPPA requirements.  And they're going out of their way to not state this publicly, instead offering misleading help advice that is wasting a lot of parents' time. 

    More on this in the related Bug Reports thread here: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/Xbox-Attempt-to-connect-to-online-error-code-524/td-p/6431848/page/6

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