Office of Fair Trading to investigate game fees

Children use the Internet at the 20th Sao Paulo Fashion Week Web games aimed at children are to be investigated by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). The OFT will probe whether young people are being pressured into buying extra content. Some games advertised as free contain hidden extras and updates that come at a cost.  A statement from the OFT said; “We are concerned that children and their parents could be subject to unfair pressure to purchase when they are playing games they thought were free, but which can actually run up substantial costs.”
The OFT will investigate whether the additional costs are made clear to the consumer when purchasing the product.
Regulator PhonePayPlus revealed that since January it had seen a 300 percent increase in consumer complaints regarding charges for games.
The investigation has been prompted by a BBC report of a 5 year old school boy who incurred charges of more than £1,700 when buying add-ons for a free game.