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

Jenna_Appleseed

"It's pretty clear-cut that the My Little Pony app is not aimed at adults" - take it you've not heard of Bronies then:rotfl:
- I know they're strange but 'immoral' really? this reads like an Daily Mail 'ban this sick filth'type moral outrage story.

dtaylor84

Immoral? Declaring War? I guess that the "Editoral Code" was copied from the Daily Mail's?

matthewbissell

It's part Apples fault with these in-app purchase and part the adults They don't force you into it. iPad's are not designed for sole use by child alone.

For example in a house, you protect the child by removing all the dangerous items around the house at their height that's not done by the builders who built the house. So why should it be the same for iPads, before you give it to the kid, you safeguard them by enabling settings before giving it to them. The password should be typed in away from the looking eyes of the child. iTunes voucher or having no cards on your account also helps.


With the daily mail article, they are extremely biased towards Apple. The dad gives the child the pin code because he was busy and now wants a refund. Its the dad's fault this has happened because the child shouldn't know the pin and he should be keeping an eye on them.

I think the parents should be informed not just go after the company's, because that's the easy way out.

So is the next campaign on Microsoft? How they don't enable child settings on every computer and how children access inappropriate websites.

I BLAME THE PARENTS!!

im-lost

Haha, immoral? The only thing that's immoral is parents not taking responsibility for their precious little sprogs actions.

I've come to expect more from the MSE team, but recently their standards are slipping, jumping by on any old bandwagon..

Let's hope the app developer gets wind of this and takes MSE for a ride over their slanderous comments.

gadgetmind

Jenna_Appleseed wrote: »

take it you've not heard of Bronies then

Thanks for that.

I hadn't heard of them, googled said term, and have just been sick in my mouth, twice.

jennytablina

The one thing I WILL agree with: the amount of money Gameloft ask for Gems in game is nuts, the game will occasionally give you Gems for free for doing tasks and finding the mysterious Box Pony. But the game gives you too few meaning you'll be spending YEARS trying to get all the current ponies available. That's the real problem with the App, by all means make it so that dedicated players can get the goods eventually with time, but at least be REASONABLE about it.

Apple also need to make it even clearer how you go about blocking in app purchases. It's nice that it's there, but the average user tends to need it made clear as day to them otherwise they won't use it.

I sympathise with parents who end up finding their little 'uns have gone on a spending spree (we all make mistakes!) - but I have to ask why these parents have not taught their kids that mummy and daddy's account shouldn't be used to buy things without permission. It's not like the purchase is hidden, the prompts show what's being spent and even a prompt for the password shows up before it's confirmed.

Also hi I'm a Brony (technically a Pegasister as female fans are called) - we're not all crazy like the google searches might suggest but hey - full transparency and all that.

Fire_Fox

dtaylor84 wrote: »

Immoral? Declaring War? I guess that the "Editoral Code" was copied from the Daily Mail's?

Maybe Martin Lewis is thinking of running for PM? He will have to learn the politician lingo "hard working families, pensioners, hard working families, pensioners ...."

boxedout

I recently got this app for my 5 year old daughter but was really disturbed to see the banner ad above this was a row of revolver style guns. We didn't click to see what this was advertising (probably some type of war game) but I thought this was a terrible ad choice for a game that is obviously aimed at young girls. This app got deleted pretty quick!!

Exile_geordie

This may be a consumer website and all about money saving but this story is so hysterical its beyond belief,


Why, Martin, are you basically absolving the parents of ANY responsibility here?

If parents are naive enough to not know about these in app purchases and how to block them then they shouldnt be giving their tech to kids or maybe shouldnt be having kids at all.

Lazy, slovenly ,hysterical journalism at its best.

AAAAA

Oh for F*** sack.The kid who bought S*** loads of iteams for the zombi games and appears on the daily mail,is on bbc breakfast appealing for sympathy.:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad: