Step 3 — Reading the terms, the classification and the spending rules

Step 3 of 5 · about ten minutes to read

Why thirty minutes of reading is worth it

Almost nobody reads the terms of service for an online game. That is understandable: they are long, they are written for lawyers, and the only visible alternative to accepting them is not playing.

But you do not have to read them the way a lawyer would. You need to find seven specific things, and all seven are findable in about half an hour with the search function of your browser. The point is not to memorise the document. It is to know, before you have invested any time, what happens in the handful of situations that actually come up.

Do this once per game, before you create the account. Doing it afterwards is still useful, but by then you have agreed.

The four documents, and what each one is for

These are separate documents with different purposes, and publishers sometimes put the thing you care about in the one you did not expect. Search all four rather than assuming.

The seven clauses to find

Open each document in your browser and use the find function. Search for the words in brackets; the surrounding paragraph is what you want.

1. What you get when you pay (search: "licence", "license", "virtual")

Nearly every set of terms in this category says that purchases buy a limited, revocable licence to use virtual items inside the service, not property. Read the actual wording. It tells you what happens to your purchases if the account closes or the service ends.

2. Refunds (search: "refund")

Find the publisher's stated process and any time limits. Note it, and read the consumer-law section below, because a publisher's policy sits alongside Australian law rather than replacing it.

3. Suspension and termination (search: "terminate", "suspend")

What conduct ends an account, whether you are notified, and whether anything is refunded. Pay attention to clauses letting the publisher act at its discretion, which are common.

4. Changes to the game and the terms (search: "modify", "change")

Publishers reserve the right to change the service and the terms. Look for how changes are announced and whether continuing to play counts as acceptance.

5. Randomised paid items (search: "loot", "random", "chance", "container")

If the game sells containers with randomly determined contents, the terms or an accompanying page should say so, and some publishers publish the probabilities. Whether probabilities are published, and where, is worth noting on your sheet.

6. Data and where it goes (search: "transfer", "third part")

In the privacy policy: what is collected, who it is shared with, and whether it is processed outside Australia. If the publisher is based overseas, assume it is, and check the policy for the detail.

7. Account closure (search: "delete", "close", "deactivate")

How you leave, what is deleted, what is kept and for how long. Step 5 returns to this. Knowing the exit before you enter is a reasonable habit.

The Australian classification, and where to look it up

Computer games sold or distributed in Australia are classified under the national classification scheme. The Australian Classification Board is the body that classifies films, computer games and certain publications, and its site carries a searchable database of classification decisions together with explanations of what each classification means and what the consumer advice lines indicate.

Look the title up there rather than relying on a rating badge reproduced on a shop page, which may be from another country's system. Classification categories and the consumer advice attached to them are defined by the Board, and its own pages are the place to read the definitions rather than taking a summary from a site like this one.

Two practical notes. A classification applies to the game as classified, and online games change substantially over time. And classification addresses content — violence, language, themes — rather than the commercial design features discussed in Step 1. A classification tells you about what is depicted, not about how the game asks for money.

What the Australian Consumer Law gives you

Digital products and services supplied to consumers in Australia come with consumer guarantees under the Australian Consumer Law. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission administers that law and publishes plain-language guidance on consumer guarantees, which is the right place to read what they are and when they apply.

Two points from that guidance are worth carrying into this step as general orientation. A business's own stated policy does not remove rights that the law gives you. And statements in a terms document that appear to exclude all liability may not be effective to the extent the law says otherwise.

This course is not legal advice and cannot tell you how the law applies to your situation. What it can tell you is where to read the law's own description of itself before you accept a publisher's description of your rights.

If a person under 18 will be playing

Three extra checks apply, and they are worth doing before the account exists rather than after.

Check the game's own minimum age in the terms, which is set by the publisher and is separate from the classification. Check whether the publisher offers parental or family controls and what they actually restrict — some restrict chat, some restrict purchases, some restrict neither. And check how payment details are stored, because a saved card with no confirmation step is the mechanism behind most unplanned spending by young people.

On the content side, read the Classification Board's description of the title's classification and consumer advice rather than a summary. On the behaviour side, the eSafety Commissioner publishes material for parents and carers about online games and about what to do when a young person is targeted.

Randomised paid items deserve a separate conversation in a household with a young person. They should not be presented to a child as an ordinary purchase: the amount paid is fixed and what is received is not, and that difference is the whole point of discussing it in advance.

The worked example: thirty minutes with a highlighter

The hypothetical household sits down after dinner with the publisher's terms open in one browser tab and the Classification Board's database in another. They work the list of seven in order, pasting each paragraph they find into a plain text file.

They come away with four notes. Purchases are a licence, not property. The refund process exists and has a stated route through support. The account can be suspended for conduct in chat, which prompts a short conversation about how they intend to behave. And the publisher is based overseas, so their email address and session records will be handled outside Australia under the publisher's own privacy policy.

None of those four notes stops them. That is normal, and it is the usual outcome of this exercise. The value is that they are no longer going to be surprised by any of the four, and they spent half an hour rather than an evening.

They add one line to their sheet from Step 1: a spending limit of zero for the first month, to be revisited only after they have played enough to know whether they like it.

Before you move on

Checklist 3 — the paperwork