The BBC has a recent report on an all too familiar sort of story of a young child racking up a hefty bill through In-App purchases in an iPad game. In this case 5 year old Danny Kitchen – from the city of Bristol in England – managed to run up a bill of around $2,500 in just a short time playing a ‘free’ game.
It turns out the game uses the freemium model – the game itself is free but In-App purchases are available and sometimes almost necessary to advance through a game effectively or relatively quickly. Danny apparently spent only around 15 minute with his game while racking up a large number of expensive In-App purchases at over $100 a pop.
The boy’s parents initially thought the iTunes receipts showing these purchases were just some sort of error and ignored them – and fortunately their story has a happy ending as Apple helped the family get a full refund.
It’s very easy to take away the ability for kids to make these sort of mistakes on the iPad – see my article on how to setup parental controls on the iPad for a step-by-step guide on how to do this. Stories like this one serve as a great reminder on how useful it can be to set some sensible restrictions on the iPad.
Patrick Jordan
Founder and Editor in Chief of iPad Insight. Husband, father to a lovely daughter, Commander of the Armies of the North, dog lover (especially Labs), Austinite, former Londoner, IT consultant, huge sports nut, iPad and mobile tech blogger, mobile apps junkie.
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Why is this Apple’s fault?
Now it’s Apple’s fault this child hasn’t got any parental guidance, hasn’t been taught right and wrong and is left alone with an adult device?
When will modern parents realise that their duty doesn’t stop with the act of procreation and birth?! Monitor your offspring and it won’t do stupid stuff.