MSE News: 'Immoral' games which tempt kids to spend cash face OFT probe

rockin_plumber

Takeaway_Addict wrote: »

Again an article with no views from the majority of posters on previous threads. Parental responsibility should overcome any charges a game may pose and none of them are hiding the charges.

Just going over old ground...

Discussed HERE about a month ago in depth.

rockin_plumber

ZhugeEX wrote: »

On Apple products you just enter in your password once for something, and for the next 15 minutes you can buy anything without even confirming it.

Apple make it difficult for people to get around this unless they actually research it themselves.

It's not that difficult

SETTINGS..... GENERAL..... RESTRICTIONS....

You can then change require password to IMMEDIATELY and turn off in app purchases, no research needed

rockin_plumber

wantmemoney wrote: »

There's also another tactic you often see throughout these forums.

They will try to hijack and derail the thread from the main topic by blaming parents for being the problem.

If the parents set up the restrictions before letting the child have the device, thus running up all these bills then this wouldn't even be in the news!

wantmemoney

There is a well known psychological blame game that con artists (and others) very often use in situations like these. They blame the victims.

The victims (often children) will be blamed to make them feel guilty in order to get them to accept responsibility for the harm they have suffered.

so the predicted blame game begins
why are you and your like minded friends blaming the victims?

rockin_plumber wrote:

If the parents set up the restrictions before letting the child have the device, thus running up all these bills then this wouldn't even be in the news!

no....the reason this is in the news is because-

premium rate 'entrepreneurs' intentionally designed a billing system, on a child's game, with a fifteen minute (opt-out) window that could be exploited (through the naivety of young children) to gain access to the parents bank account.

ps
once the OFT has looked at this it might be a good idea if MSE highlighted the huge problem of the unsolicited debiting of phone accounts by the premium rate industry.

rockin_plumber

wantmemoney wrote: »

no....the reason this is in the news is because-

premium rate 'entrepreneurs' intentionally designed a billing system, on a child's game, with a fifteen minute (opt-out) window that could be exploited (through the naivety of young children) to gain access to the parents bank account.......

Again.... There is no need whatsoever to enter ANY BANK ACCOUNT DETAILS OR CREDIT CARD DETAILS.... If these parents were sensible they would be using iTunes top up cards and this would stop all these surprise bills.

And I don't think it's the naivety of the children
If they aren't old enough or obedient enough not to purchase things when you tell them not to, they really shouldn't be using the devices!

I have an 8 year old son who has been using our iTunes account on his own iPod touch since he was 6.
He won't even download a free app without asking us, and he knows the password for the iTunes account because once he checks with us he enters the password.

In app purchases aren't a problem because again he asks us if it is ok to spend the money, it does say this is going to cost money before you accept it, but these can easily be turned off

We know he can't run up a massive bill as we use iTunes top up cards.
And should he decide to spend it all without asking he knows his iPod would be on ebay when we found out!

And he wouldn't get another until he could afford his own and afford to fund his own iTunes account.

It is up to the parents to make sure there are very clear ground rules or make the devices secure before giving them to their children.

matttye

Saw this on ITV yesterday. It's a ridiculous non-issue being blown out of all proportion.

A password has to be inputted to confirm the purchase. Don't give your kids your password. Problem solved!

Also, in iOS at least you can restrict in-app purchases altogether.

Finally you don't even have to input your financial information, you can just use gift cards if you'd prefer. That would be the safest option.

I can't believe a few fools giving their kids their passwords has resulted in an investigation. News flash: if you give your kids your banking details the same thing could happen!

matttye

MRshelf wrote: »

The Simpsons Tapped Out App by EA has a very disturbing message when you cancel an in-app purchase.

I cannot provide a screenshot as i am too new of a forum user however it reads

"The Store, Purchase Cancelled, We are all heartbroken, Maggie is crying. so hey --congratulations! YOU MADE A BABY CRY."

I know its parental responsibilty to control their childs usage of in-app purchases.. but i dont feel messages like that are appropriate

It's meant to be a joke. Your kids shouldn't be using a device where they can make purchases without supervision. I'm sure the parent can waylay any guilt the child feels because of that message.

matttye

ZhugeEX wrote: »

On Apple products you just enter in your password once for something, and for the next 15 minutes you can buy anything without even confirming it.

Apple make it difficult for people to get around this unless they actually research it themselves.

Settings, general, restrictions. There's an option to require password every 15 minutes or immediately. That's exactly where I would expect to find such an option.

Richard_T_

Personaly i think there is something fundamentaly flawed in the in-app purchasing/one click ( tap?) buying of goods and services and the cases of children running up huge bills only highlights this.

Its easy to blame the end user, but how many people are actualy fully aware of the ins and outs of how things work, especialy those with young children who will be suffering from lack of sleep, tiredness confusion and all the other things that go with sleep deprivation, while trying to hold down a job/run a household and all the rest.

The only way to solve this would be to have a system in place that makes it impossile to buy any thing without first entering your username/password, a valid card number and any passwords associated with it ( such as the 3d secure payment system) before payment is accepted.
If the above is too much for those people ho know what they are doing then there should also be an opt out system that expires after a set amount of time.

fiendishlyclever

I'm sick of seeing threads like this. At least the purchases are only money - the busy sleepless parent can't be refunded for their child finding pornography on the internet. If you are going to hand a device to a child you have a responsibility to understand how it works. Anything less is simply poor parenting...