AGE RESTRICTION - EA SUCKS BIG TIME
Not only does EA tell me what games my kids can play, but they also make it impossible to disable the nag telling him to login to services he can't access in the first place. It's so annoying that h...
Forum Discussion
Hey @8rqcme4acgji,
my name's Valgard and I'm a Community Manager for EA here in the boards.
I've read your feedback and I'm sorry that you and your son had a bad experience while using our products.
And I'd also like to explain the problem to you:
We here at EA offer the possibility to create restricted accounts or called "Underage account" for children 12 years and younger. When your child turns 13, he or she will be able to age up their account to an adult account.
You can read more about underage accounts here.
However, I'd like to ask your for a few more details.
- On which platforms do those notifications occur?
Origin for PC, PlayStation, Xbox? - Can you provide me with a screenshot or picture of the notification?
As far as I know, an underage account shouldn't get notifications that ask the player to go online or use restricted features so I'd like to investigate this issue a bit further.
Again, I'm sorry for the bad experience and I'd like to make it up to you through helping you out here. 🙂
Please, when you answer, tag me with @EA_Valgard and I'll find my way back here to your issue.
Meanwhile all the best and a happy new year in advance!
Cheers,
Val
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I appreciate the gesture, but telling what I already know doesn't do solve the problem, nor does creating an adult account, as that would potentially give him access to content that IS NOT appropriate for his age....which defeats the purpose of having parental controls in the first place.
But, since you asked.....(and yes, he is signed into his account as a minor, I just blurred the username)
He has a sub-account on my PSN account that is linked to an EA account.
Pic1 (top) -- When the game starts, Playstation tells him he can't use the chat/messaging functions -- which is fine....no mention of online services or multiplayer play, which means the block isn't coming from Playstation.
Pic2 (middle) -- He's told he's unable to log in because his account doesn't meet minimum requirements, which means EA already knows he can't use any of their online services
Pic3 (bottom) - He's told he has to log in to his account to access online services, even though he was already told his account doesn't meet minimum requirements. And, yes, I know Multiplayer highlighted in the background. That's because all these nags occur as soon as the game launches and the UI is frozen from any input. We never have the option to NOT select Multiplayer, because that's the default option, even though EA already knows his account doesn't meet minimum requirements the second the game starts.
(continued below)
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Pic3.5 (top) -- Note his avatar, which means he IS logged into his PSN account, which is how EA knows he's too young to use online services in the first place...yet he's still be prompted to login.
Pic4 (bottom) -- To further illustrate the issue, note that his avatar is still showing, which means EA still knows he's logged in as a minor, yet he's still being prompted to log in to use the features EA already knows he's too young to use.
@8rqcme4acgji Everytime you bypass the language filtering by typing a certain naughty word with an @ symbol, you're sending an email notification to a specific EA user. I think he/she might not want to get involved in this particular conversation.
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I have an adult account and still can't link the account to the Xbox one. I can't play Battlefield or Starwars on line. Money spent on presents have been wasted. How dare EA put on restrictions without clearly putting them on the game box. Furthermore, how Dare EA try and over rule parents. However, EA clearly do not restrict spending money on line. Get it sorted.
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Hey @8rqcme4acgji, @Whoknew2014, @strikercfc,
please all take a step back and calm down. We're all adults and we can talk responsibly and calm even if we're angry, okay?
Thank you very much.
So, I talked about this issue with a few colleagues and also had another player here with the same problem.
The restrictions for an underage account aren't made by us due to us thinking that they are so funny. They're set according to the law, but you're right that something is wrong with those notifications. You can read more about the COPA Act here, which seems to be related to the issue.
We're now trying to find out what's wrong but I'd kindly ask you to contact my colleagues from the EA Support to voice this issue and the steps that you've already taken with me.Cheers,
Val- Approved
Thanks, again, for your efforts Val.
Again: I don't need him to have access to online features....I just want to disable that annoying nag. There's no need to go through the screens posted above after every single mission. It gets old REAL fast.
That COPPA press release you're posting is outdated, by the way. Here are some more current resources to which you can direct end users:
Children’s Online Privacy Protection
RuleChildren's Online Privacy Protection Rule: Not Just for Kids' Sites
The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule: A Six-Step Compliance Plan for Your Business (hint, hint)
I know it's academic at this point, but EA could provide online services to minors with "verifiable consent" from their parents but EA chose not to. Why EA made that choice is irrelevant. All that matters is that EA made that choice and not us. Since EA is going to make that choice for us, the least it can do is fix this nag screen.
And since EA is advising end users to just play on a fake account, it's hard to buy this whole "COPPA" excuse:
Make sure you're playing on an account registered to a user of-age and try again
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Val does not resolve issues, it is merely a statement that disappoints the users.
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