Virgin pre-loads strip poker game, blames parents

Sorry, Virgin, we don’t think you’ve played this one well. Reports aired Wednesday night that the Virgin Mobile Wild Card, the first in a line of multimedia phones available from Virgin, is coming pre-loaded with a strip poker video game. Now, this might sound benign to some. After all, it’s just a crappy, pixellated facsimile of a woman stripping — though not fully — when you win. However, this isn’t something that Virgin needs to be loading onto phones before purchase. Plus, while it might seem benign, clearly there are going to be parents who will object. So why proactively push those buttons? Even when faced with this issue, Virgin isn’t saying the right things.

With regard to the the preloaded game on the Wild Card, we encourage parents to determine what is age appropriate for their children, and strongly support them taking an active role in learning about the technology their children are using.

That’s a fine stance to take, that parents should determine what is age appropriate for their children. However, preloading suggestive games is just counterproductive. If you want to make it available for download, fine. Parents can probably have some level of say over it in that case. But to preload it is just going to piss people off. They go and cite a clause in their terms and conditions, but as WinkNews.com points out, “that sentence is buried in more than 12 printed pages of a service agreement and some 43 paragraphs into the document so it’s hard to find in the fine print.” We’ve previously noted the deceptive nature of cell phone terms and conditions. Of course, Virgin Mobile is offering a refund for anyone offended by this game. Though the better solution is to quit preloading it, thus avoiding this entire issue in the first place. [WinkNews.com]]]>