Oink, the teen payment technology also known as Virtual Piggy, is announcing today that it will provide payments for teen-friendly merchant Discover Network, the fourth-largest credit card company.
Oink
Oink is providing an alternative to gift cards for teens, who aren’t old enough to have credit cards. Oink lets teens make secure online purchases over any platform without having to turn over identity information to the merchant. In that sense, it complies with laws such as the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act that protect kids who use online services such as games. COPPA prevents the collection of personally identifiable information for anyone under 13, making it difficult to verify transactions.
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Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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