Mobile bill shock through kids in-app purchases

PRINCESSKERRY

Looks like I got away with this relatively unscathed as our 5 year old bought £8 worth of Angry birds items the other day, we had drummed in to them that they weren't allowed to click on any other games or pop ups but there items do just pop up during the game and I believe he thought they were free.
This was via my kindle which is set up to my husbands amazon account as there are books on my kindle from there, we can buy items with no prompt for passwords at all.
Given a stern talk to but I think we are definitely going to have to tighten up security on there, but until I work out what I can do they are back to their DS's only.

bat400

I'm picturing the scene...

Her: What's all these emails from iTunes about farm food?
Him: I don't know.
Her: Well it must be you - you're the only one who plays those dumb games.
Him: They're not dumb - they're fun. What does it say anyway?
Her: It says you paid £70 for a "mountain of food".
Him: (pause) What?
Her: It says you paid £70 for a "mountain of food".
Him: I did click something but I didn't really look at it. Is that £70 in real money?
Her: Looks that way.
Him: (pause) Oh well, lesson learnt. Must be more careful...
Her: Hang on a minute - there's more!
Him: (pause) Really?
Her: Yeah, there's loads of them - it must add up to thousands of pounds!
Him: Oh, darn it. What can we do about it?
Her: I don't know! It's your stupid fault for playing those dumb games in the first place!
Him: They're not dumb! If I ring Apple do you think they'll refund the money?
Her: I doubt it - you clicked the buttons after all...
Him: I know! We'll say the kids did it without us realising, and we'll say they worked out my password by watching me type it in. And then, to make it all the more plausible, we'll tell a load of people about it so that the companies who make these games look bad instead of everyone thinking we're stupid.
Her: Yeah - that'll probably work...

If I was dumb enough to let payments go from my account without my authorisation then I'd certainly try blaming anyone but myself.

Supahpossum

I've had these free games on my iPhone before where you play for a bit and then it starts to nag you to buy items to speed things up. One game, 'Farm Story' had this annoying habit of throwing random pop-ups onto the screen as I was collecting crops etc and the amount of times I accidentally clicked on the sneaky thing before I realised it was there are too many to count. The game makers try really hard to make you buy in-app items including annoying pop-ups at random intervals. I deleted the game in the end, due to the annoying occurrence of these pop-ups. There's a few on Facebook too; you play the game and then suddenly a pop-up appears and it's too late, you've already clicked on it. You do get a second chance to cancel, but how many kids would click through anyway? If there's legislation to be made here, it should be against the 'sneak attack' pop-ups, not the phone manufacturers.

Takeaway_Addict

voice_of_reason_2 wrote: »

If a 7 year old was to try and buy products in a store using their parent's credit card, regardless if they knew the PIN, the store would be acting illegally in accepting the payment.

Why is it different for apple?

If the phone is owned by the parent then its a reasonable assumption to presume its the adult buying. Thus its down to the adult to prove that it was a child that used it not the companies.


Again, lets not try and pin this on the companies for parents being at fault

sooty&sweep

Hi

I disagree alot of those games are clearly targeted at children.

I do let my children use my tablet because there are alot of free apps that are great and have a real educational benefit. Practising times tables with mum gets boring playing a game practising times tables is fun and you''re still learning.

So far I''ve protected myself by not putting in any credit card details in.

Jen

tibawo

Reading these stories I feel I made the right choice in not putting in my credit card details, I top up with gift cards only so once it's gone, it's gone

shropshire_lass

Simple, don't start letting them use it! How many times do you see a kid out and about playing a game on mums/dads iphone? I would never let a child play games on what is a £400 plus piece of technology. What if they dropped it? What if they put it down somewhere and forgot to pick it up? Kids do this all the time with things when they become distracted.
Who shows them they can play games on the phones in the first place?
There are lots of hand held game playing devices out there; let them have them.
Dosen't matter what their friends parents let them do. Grow a backbone and say 'No' for once!

Scott4197

I use a prepaid MasterCard (fairfx) on my iTunes account.

There is just a small amount of money paid onto the card for app purchases.

I lost my nerve when my credit card was linked to the account because someone tried to hack my iTunes account some time ago...

I feel a bit sorry for those who have been ripped off. When setting up an iTunes account in the past it seemed that a credit card was compulsory.

delain

The kindle fire won't let you download any apps at all without a bank card registered to it. I've had to put one of my cards on to my daughters and have a password that has to be put in every time something gets downloaded, with the plus side I can vet what she has on it without having to ask.

It is a pain though, I'd much rather not have a card linked to it!

securityguy

delain wrote: »

The kindle fire won't let you download any apps at all without a bank card registered to it. I've had to put one of my cards on to my daughters

No you didn't have to. You chose to, having similarly chosen to get her a device which had that requirement. If you don't like it, there are endless solutions, including pre-pay debit cards, gift vouchers, getting her a bank account with a debit card (available normally from age 12) and not letting her have the thing in the first place.