The Office of Fair Trading, which previously announced that it intends to investigate free-to-play apps and games aimed at UK children, has released the contents of its public survey.
The questionnaire is geared toward parents asking them to describe their children's web and app-based gaming habits. The OFT is looking to uncover whether current methods of in-app transactions goad children into spending real money on free-to-play games.
These questions from the OFT come from its official website [PDF].
- How old is your child? (Please complete one of these forms for each of your children, if you have more than one.)
- Which web and/or app games has your child played in the last two months?
- Have any of those games invited your child to make a purchase?
- When you first downloaded those games – or allowed your child to create an account to play them – did you expect that in - game purchases might be a feature of the game? Did you expect the game would invite your child to make a purchase?
- Have you, your child or another adult made an in - game purchase for your child? Or made any other form of purchase to allow your child to progress further in the game or access additional content?
- If you answered yes to question 5, how many of those purchases have been made in the last two months?
- Thinking about the most recent of the purchases mentioned in question 5, what was the value of that purchase and how was it made (for example, by credit/debit card, gift card, iTunes account or similar, etc)?
- Is there any other information you would like us to consider as part of our investigation?