IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - July/August 2021 - 42

Socioeconomic Impacts
For young digital service users, the problem
is arguably more acute. Too often, T&Cs:
Are not presented in age appropriate formats,
even where services and products
are clearly aimed at younger users: This is
often because of legal and technical jargon,
formatting that relies heavily on plain text or
simply the timing of when T&Cs are presented
to young people-often the most
inopportune times in the user experience are
chosen as a means or persuasion, making it
all too easy to " click through " without reading.20
For example, a splash page incorporating
graphics contrasted against a descriptive
text-based policy may entice a young gamer
to bypass T&Cs, distracted by the immediate
potential to play as opposed to spending
minutes deciphering legalese and possibly
even requiring parental consent. Young people
have often pointed out that the presentation
of T&Cs can render them meaningless,
rendering it impossible to make an informed
decision on whether or not to take an appropriate
action, e.g., to install a piece of software
on their smartphone.
" I tried [reading T&Cs] once and it wasjust
... you don't understand it, itjust goes
through your head so there's not much
point. " 21
The format of T&C also fails to highlight ways
young people can seek redress if they are
breached, which young people tell us time and
time again they want to see.22
Fail to offer fair terms: That is T&Cs can
sometimes fail to meet basic consumer law
obligations, especially around informed
consent and parental consent, which in
practice would nullify a contract between
two parties (e.g., the company offering the
service and the end-user, being the young
person and their guardian). While legal
systems vary greatly, broadly speaking
children are only allowed to enter into
contracts on a limited basis under the presumption
that they may not comprehend
the consequences. It is unlikely that many
standard T&Cs would meet minimum legal
requirements to create a binding contract
42
between young users and a service provider
in most places.
Create and enable a service that, in itself, is
not age appropriate: If a product or service
fails to recognize that young people use it,
it might not accordingly offer an appropriate
product or service. This may mean
T&Cs ask fundamentally inappropriate
things of young users, such as consent to
have their data collected and sold for marketing
purposes or agree to push notifications
that arrive in what are clearly young
people's bedtimes, or turn ON video cameras
in order to embed their real-time
image in gamified experiences invading
young people's personal privacy and property
(many examples of age inappropriate
and " risky " services have been documented.23,
24
Improperly trade offyoung people's rights
with commercial and business incentives:
Where a young person's best interests should
always be the primary consideration, too
often T&Cs create the conditions for a product
or service that prioritizes industry needs
and commercial interests before the best
interest of their younger users; for example,
in-gaming purchases linked to default payment
settings on tablet operating systems.25
While it is true that parents bear a great deal
of responsibility when they preload their
credit card details onto App stores, there also
needs to be acknowledgement by gaming providers
that they should not tempt young people
by offering in-gaming purchase options
that deliberately influence a behavioral decision.
For example, young people may choose
to " grind " through and earn the new skin with
points, which generally can take hundreds of
hours of playing time, or they may simply circumvent
this process with the suggested
" buy credits " that automatically allow you to
buy a new skin. Young people's rights should
not be " balanced " or traded off against business
models driven by profit and sales maximization
goals.
Inappropriately responsibilize young people
and parents: That is, T&Cs often create
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