How they ‘cashed in on children’

FACEBOOK staff knew children were racking up huge bills on their parents’ credit cards and refused to repay them, newly released court documents confirm.

Staff denied some refund requests – even though they suspected the children were younger than 13, the minimum age to use the global social media platform.

In one case employees discussed an American girl aged about 13 who blew £5,000 on a Facebook game in two weeks and was trying to get it voided. She was called ‘a whale’, a term usually reserved for heavy betting casino punters or a big financial investor.

A US judge last week ordered a trove of internal documents to be unsealed, the Centre for Investigative Reporting (CIR) said. One conversation from the files shows a Facebook employee, named Gillian, ask: ‘Would you refund this whale ticket? User is disputing ALL charges… User looks underage as well. Well, maybe not under 13.’

Gillian is told: ‘I wouldn’t refund,’ by another member of staff called Michael.

Some Facebook staff voiced their concerns but appear to have been ignored.

British parents have long complained about children running up bills on games. They include one mother who said her boy emptied his own savings account of £288 and used her credit card to pay £625 of charges on the Farmville game.

The US documents were part of a 2012 lawsuit brought by parents of a child who spent hundreds of dollars on their credit card. The child did not know Facebook had his parents’ card on file when he was buying virtual currency in the game Ninja Saga.

The CIR said a Facebook analysis told the company that the average age of those playing the popular Angry Birds game was just five – yet charges were still being collected.

A Facebook spokesman said that in 2016 it had agreed to ‘provide dedicated resources for refund requests related to purchases made by minors on Facebook’.