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

AAAAA

wantmemoney wrote: »

There appear to be some not very nice people on this thread who would like to go back to the days of selling snake oil potions.

I was brought up in the belief that it was our duty to warn and help protect people from wasting money or being ripped off. I was never told only people of a certain age or IQ should be helped.

It's NOT ripping people off.

rockin_plumber

All that will happen if Apple do have to refund everyone, is they are going to put the price of apps up...

And then who ends up suffering....

People who took the time to look through the settings and change them so things like this don't happen.

Fire_Fox

wantmemoney wrote: »

There appear to be some not very nice people on this thread who would like to go back to the days of selling snake oil potions.

I was brought up in the belief that it was our duty to warn and help protect people from wasting money or being ripped off. I was never told only people of a certain age or IQ should be helped.

Go to your iTunes account, select one of these games. Right underneath the part where you click to download the game there is a list of the in app purchases and the price of each. How much more help or warnings do you need??? What are these 'responsible adults' doing, looking at the pretty pink pictures?

rockin_plumber

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Go to your iTunes account, select one of these games. Right underneath the part where you click to download the game there is a list of the in app purchases and the price of each. How much more help or warnings do you need?

Some parents are making out the cost is hidden or sneaky, that's utter rubbish they just didn't bother to read any of the blurb of the game before letting a young child play it unsupervised. That is laziness not lack of intellect.

Quite right...

Look >>>>>HERE<<<<<

And down the left hand side you will see....

Top In App Purchases

1. Scoop of Gems£2.99
2. Pouch of Gems£1.49
3. Pile of Gems£6.99
4. Scoop of Bits£2.99
5. Pouch of Bits£1.49
6. Bucket of Gems£13.99
7. Pile of Bits£6.99
8. Crate of Gems£34.99
9. Mountain of Gems£69.99
10. Bucket of Bits£13.99

Nothing hidden... its there in writing

Fire Fox Beat me to it

Fire_Fox

rockin_plumber

Fire_Fox wrote: »

For added security it might be advisable to change the REQUIRE PASSWORD setting from 15 minutes to immediately.

Fire_Fox

rockin_plumber wrote: »

For added security it might be advisable to change the REQUIRE PASSWORD setting from 15 minutes to immediately.

It might, if I wasn't child free by choice. But thanks, it's very rare anyone but me has access to the unlocked handset: passcode and auto lock are set to one minute. Ironically I had to un-restrict the link between my iPhone photo store and Photobucket account to upload that screenshot!

rockin_plumber

Fire_Fox wrote: »

It might, if I wasn't child free by choice....

Wasn't really directed at you..... just a general comment for people who don't feel the need to set up their phone security properly.....

Its probably a god job I did point it out actually...

If these poor unfortunate people can't get money back from apple....
They may be looking for someone else to get their money back from....

And as you posted that picture............. :eek:

Krojan

Parent's/Bill payers MUST take responisbility for these purchases, after all you're letting them play a game on a expensive device that automatically authorises credit transactions against your bill. You simply wouldn't give them your PIN number and credit card, show them into Toys R Us and not expect them to buy something now would you?

It's all well and good blaming the developers and publishers for the sometimes high in-game purchase prices of these apps, but lets remember they're simply businesses trying to make money in a market thats overflowing with "free" apps. It's cost them money to develop and market these applications, money which must be recouperated if they're to pay the bills.

I find it amusing that when I used to sell mobile phones (years ago mind) I was seeing parents each and every week coming in complaining about the size of their bills when they'd taken out contract phones and simply given them to their kids, expecting the networks to foot the bills for their indiscretions. Simply put then and seemingly fitting now, theres a solution to your problem, its called pay-as-you-go.

The simple fact is kids are kids, blaiming the "system" and that kids today are "tech-savvy"etc is all a bunch of absolute nonsence and simply a pathetic excuse for ignorance, if you let them do stuff they arn't meant to be doing then whose fault is it really?.

This day and age parents should start saying that all important word to them... its simple, its as old as the hills and it was a word often told to me by my parents... its... "NO!".

No you can't have a contract phone til you're old enough to get your own.
No you can't have anymore PAYG credit til xxx/til you earn it.
No, I don't care if all your friends have one.
No, you can't have xxx
No you can't use mine, yours cost xxx and until you pay for your own it'll have to do.

NO! Its an amazing word thats simply not used often enough nowdays to the youth of today who want tomorrows new gadgets yesturday, at no cost to themselves, without any of the hard work necessary to earn and pay for it.

Poor scandalistic journalism like this will bite Martin Lewis in the butt when his kiddie is old enough and makes her own mistakes to realise that "horror stories" like these are simply put down to poor parenting.

Fire_Fox

"IT security and data protection firm Sophos today published findings of independently commissioned research by TNS, which reveals consumer attitudes toward mobile security and data loss prevention. Although almost a quarter of consumers (22%) have lost a mobile phone in the past, and a further 12% have had a phone stolen, 67% don’t have passwords set up on their mobile phones to protect stored data.

60% of those surveyed acknowledged that device theft or loss was the biggest security threat to mobile devices; however, only 57% have password protection enabled even on their laptops, with 18% admitting to using the same password for everything."
http://www.sophos.com/en-us/press-office/press-releases/2011/08/67-percent-of-consumers-do-not-have-password-protection-on-their-mobile-phones.aspx




https://blog.lookout.com/blog/2011/11/04/iphone-users-care-about-security-too/