MSE News: 'Immoral' My Little Pony game tempts kids to spend £70 on 'virtual gems'

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"Parents should beware letting kids play the My Little Pony app, which charges up to £70 for in-app purchases..."
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'Immoral' My Little Pony game tempts kids to spend £70 on 'virtual gems'

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'Immoral' My Little Pony game tempts kids to spend £70 on 'virtual gems'

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20629245
When my retired Mum got her first iphone last year and asked me to set it up the first thing I did was turn off the ability to make in-app purchases! She's pretty good at using it now but could easily have accidentally run up a huge bill in those first few weeks.
However, this is from software aimed at sad old people rather than kids with slightly dopey parents, but only because I didn't think of the latter wheeze.
Like all religions, the Faith of the Invisible Pink Unicorns is based upon both logic and faith. We have faith that they are pink; we logically know that they are invisible because we can't see them.
With the in-app purchase box that says....
CONFIRM YOUR IN-APP PURCHASE
DO YOU WANT TO BUY A MOUNTAIN OF GEMS FOR £69.99?
CONFIRM OR BUY
MoneySavingExpert.com creator Martin Lewis says: "It's pretty clear-cut that the My Little Pony app is not aimed at adults. This is a specific children's game and the fact it encourages children to spend £69.99 at a time on a 'mountain of gems' is disgusting and immoral.
It is quite a clear question that the pop-up box asks, parents should punish the children for making the purchase, stop them from using the device until they can be trusted.
If we made a thread .... Condemning parents that can't control the children that use these devices... How long would it stay here :mad:
I normally agree with MSE but this time you are very very wrong!
But it's 100% the parents fault not Apples...
It is so easy to blame others, when a quick look through the settings, can prevent this. This should not be another area for compensation, when, in fact, a manual was provided detailing simple steps to stop this. Please take responsibility for your own and subsequently your child's actions.
As an aside, if your password is so easy to memorise, its probably a rubbish password anyway, and needs changing
"But any parent should know that anything that can connect to the internet can connect to explicit material on the internet, films/ video or music lyrics. So you supervise your children and/ or you set up security - guess what? On the iPhone setting up age barring is in Settings/ Restrictions right next to blocking in app purchases.
If you don't know how to use your own mini computer you really should not be permitting vulnerable youngsters to do so. How do you know they are not watching violent or sexual content, or speaking to dangerous people on social networking sites instead of playing that innocent hairdressing salon game? Do children even need to be playing games or is, all too often, the smartphone/ tablet acting as a free babysitting service?"