Blizzard has announced that they are planning to roll out changes to Battle.net accounts that have parental controls switched on: all purchases made using real-life money will be prevented.

In a forum post Support Forum Agent Vrakthris gives notice of the upcoming change, laying out what the e-mails Blizzard is sending out in the next few days to the parent and child accounts will say. He says that “We wanted to let everyone know this was coming and, considering how many phishing emails are out there, that it is indeed from us.”

The text of the e-mail sets out what the change will mean to the accounts in question, preventing any purchases in World of Warcraft, Hearthstone and Diablo III’s soon-to-close auction house as a default setting. It also lists how to change this option (a process that requires an e-mail to be sent to the parent account) and that Blizzard is “making this change to ensure that Parental Controls users will have more control over real-money purchases in Blizzard games.”

Although surprised that this wasn’t already a process that was in place, this is a good move on Blizzard’s part to support parents and alleviate any worries they might have of companies taking advantage of their children in a grab for more profits. Safeguards like this can only be a positive thing.

Mentioned forum post is here