General Discussion

The Northerner

(5,040 posts) Wed Apr 18, 2012, 06:46 PM Apr 2012

Parents sue Apple over in-app game charges

Apple is being sued by parents who claim the iPhone-maker is unfairly profiting from in-app payments in games aimed at children.

Many games on the iOS platform are free to download but offer game add-ons, some of which cost nearly £70.

The group said it was too easy for children to run up big bills without "authorisation of their parents".

Apple had called for the case to be dismissed, pointing out that in-app purchasing can now be disabled.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17728039

Isn't it the parents's responsibility to monitor their children's activities such as what games they play?

8 replies

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Parents sue Apple over in-app game charges (Original Post) The Northerner Apr 2012 OP

absolutely it is, but that crap should be disabled by default.. frylock Apr 2012 #1

I had this happen... vi5 Apr 2012 #2

It's fourteen kinds of stupid and seems hopeless to fix, but people just bought the model... saras Apr 2012 #3

In app purchases are evil. It's the main reason I ditched iOS for good. Initech Apr 2012 #4

Android DOES twitcher Apr 2012 #7

Just the Amazon app store does, not the Google official app store. Initech Apr 2012 #8

Simple solution guitar man Apr 2012 #5

The kid probably knows more about how it works than the parent. Odin2005 Apr 2012 #6

frylock

(34,825 posts)

1. absolutely it is, but that crap should be disabled by default..

Reply to The Northerner (Original post)

Wed Apr 18, 2012, 06:49 PM

Apr 2012

i'm sure that apple and the developers knew that stuff like this would happen. most kids know nothing of value of money.

vi5

(13,305 posts)

2. I had this happen...

Reply to The Northerner (Original post)

Wed Apr 18, 2012, 07:31 PM

Apr 2012

My (at the time) 3 year old son was playing some Smurf game and ended up charging $100 of Smurf berries to my credit card/itunes account.

I think the bigger issue is that the apps by default charge the add ons to the itunes account rather than requiring setting up a new account with the app creator, separate from itunes.

In the case of what happened to me I e-mailed itunes and said basically that I know it was my fault but that they really should fix the game in question so that it is not possible for that to happen again. They were nice enough to credit my account for the charge, but I don't know that they actually fixed it.

Bottom line: I agree it's parents responsibility but it's not always clear with each app/game what is possible to get charged to your account and they don't really do anything to make it understood and/or more difficult to do so.

saras

(6,670 posts)

3. It's fourteen kinds of stupid and seems hopeless to fix, but people just bought the model...

Reply to The Northerner (Original post)

Wed Apr 18, 2012, 09:56 PM

Apr 2012

...it wasn't particularly convenient to pay bills online UNTIL they started labeling things "services" and repeatedly billing for them that used to be "possessions", bought just once.