Apple Settles Lawsuit Over In-App Purchases By Kids

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Why can't Apple pay out more money to shareholders? Probably because of settlements like this. ;)

Under the terms of the settlement, Apple will offer a $5 iTunes credit to those who claim that a minor bought in-game items without their knowledge or permission. If the amount in question is more than $5, Apple will offer a credit for that amount. If the amount in question is over $30, an Apple user can claim a cash refund.
 
Here is an idea :

How about parents be responsible for their little brats behavior. Kids do not need iPhones and they do not need access to iPhones. I did not have a cell phone growing up and I survived just fine.
 
Here is an idea :

How about parents be responsible for their little brats behavior. Kids do not need iPhones and they do not need access to iPhones. I did not have a cell phone growing up and I survived just fine.

Thank you. Why the fuck would you give a "child" a fucking iPhone. If you buy your young child an iPhone then you are a fool.

I didn't have one either growing up and I'm a grown and happily functional adult.
 
Here is an idea :

How about parents be responsible for their little brats behavior. Kids do not need iPhones and they do not need access to iPhones. I did not have a cell phone growing up and I survived just fine.

Think of it this way: think of the things you did have growing up that your parents and your grandparents didn't have.

How would you have felt if those were taken away from you, or you were the only kid in school that didn't have it?

You don't need a iPhone but you don't need working electricity or watches or calculators either. "I didn't have ______ therefore kids today shouldn't have _______" is a terrible argument.
 
I kept my phone out of my kiddos reach. Now that I have moved to a smart phone, there's essentially no way I'm deviating from my dumb phone habits. If it's something I don't want them to have, then I do what I can to keep it out of reach. Like alcohol, my phone is off limits for my children.

If I leave it out in their grasp and it gets broken or something is purchased, my bad. If it where they sneak it from me and it breaks, then they're in deep shit. Not Apple, LG, Samsung, Verizon, AT&T, etc.

Not an Apple fan here, but I fail to see how they were responsible.
Oh, wait, these kids couldn't ever be held accountable. :rolleyes:
 
Here is an idea :

How about parents be responsible for their little brats behavior. Kids do not need iPhones and they do not need access to iPhones. I did not have a cell phone growing up and I survived just fine.

Thank you. Why the fuck would you give a "child" a fucking iPhone. If you buy your young child an iPhone then you are a fool.

I didn't have one either growing up and I'm a grown and happily functional adult.

Odd's are the kids were playing either with an ipad or an ipod touch, my niece and nephews each have a nexus7 for themselves so i can see them accidentally buying things. Of course i never entered any cc info...
 
"Mommy i want to install free game!" Parent puts in password and installs game.
Kid plays game and makes 200 dollars worth of purchases in the 15 minutes that dont require passwords.

I, for one, have let kids play games, read books, and doodle on my iPad. and if i didnt know about the 15 minute password exception, or in app purchases, i could have been screwed also.

I think apple's design flaw of not having a protected user mode for a 700$ computer, or the option of entering the password for every purchase that costs money by default, makes them partially culpable.

there are apps that obscure the fact that you are paying cash for things. Imagine a shooting level where you pick up hundreds of pennies for gun upgrades, and then are presented with an upgrade screen that lets you buy grenades for a gem, and one gem costs one dollar.
Without an ios password to let you know that you are no longer dealing with in game currency, a child could easily get taken advantage of, and developers know this.
 
I let my kids play with the iPad but have also never associated a CC with my account so that I won't have an issue like this. Many times they have pushed buttons and gotten to the "buy more ____" screens. This does make it harder for me to do what I want, but keeps me safe.

Many of the highest money making apps are ones where the app is free or very cheap and then rely heavily on in-app purchases.
 
Leslie: This guy's son was abducted by us? [Frothgar takes over and starts typing into the laptop] Should I run a stop-check or just give him store credit?

Gerald: No I don't want store credit, I want my son back!
 
A friend of mine's 5 year old got a hold of his iphone and racked up $300 in charges. Apparently he was able to get it taken care of.
 
Here is an idea :

How about parents be responsible for their little brats behavior. Kids do not need iPhones and they do not need access to iPhones. I did not have a cell phone growing up and I survived just fine.

Well, although I do agree. A lot of parents will let their kids play games on their phones. The lawsuit stems from predatory game makers that make it incredibly easy for a child to run up a huge itunes tab. This falls back on Apple by not requiring a password for ingame purchases.

There was one game where it was free, designed to have kids raise a digital fish, as soon as the fish would die they'd prompt to revive ... unbeknownst to the account holder getting charged like $50.
 
Here is an idea :

How about parents be responsible for their little brats behavior. Kids do not need iPhones and they do not need access to iPhones. I did not have a cell phone growing up and I survived just fine.

Why should they be, according to apple they dont have to be responsible for security, wont get any viruses and shouldnt be responsible for even finding programs on their own. Sorry but when you treat your customers like kids, well, they will act like kids. You cant really expect the average iPhone user to understand the device they are holding.

Isnt it ironic that apple spent all those years chastising MS for lack of passwords on user accounts and now it is they who is letting people buy anything they want without even a pin.
 
Master [H];1039649928 said:
Oh, wait, these kids couldn't ever be held accountable. :rolleyes:

Actually under the law they can't. You cannot enter a purchase agreement or a contract with a minor, so any purchase or contract accepted by a minor is meaningless and the money isn't theirs. :p
 
Think of it this way: think of the things you did have growing up that your parents and your grandparents didn't have.

How would you have felt if those were taken away from you, or you were the only kid in school that didn't have it?

You don't need a iPhone but you don't need working electricity or watches or calculators either. "I didn't have ______ therefore kids today shouldn't have _______" is a terrible argument.

You forgot most people on HardOCP are old men standing in their front yards shaking their fists at children.
 
I let my kids play with my phone, iPod Touch, and Kindle. I think my 3 year old did manage to purchase the full version of a game he was playing for $1.99, but the game was well worth the money.
He has also managed to pay for unlocking a number of levels in "Where's my Water" and "Where's my Perry". While unlocking the levels is a waste of money in my opinion, the games have provided more than enough enjoyment for my 2 and 3 year old boys to be worth the price of the game and the unlocked levels. It was also my fault for leaving in-app purchases enabled after I knew better, well after the first $2 purchase.
I was a bit more irritated when my son managed to buy a second copy of the album he was listening to on Amazon's MP3 store on the kindle. The store obviously shouldn't let you buy the same MP3s twice since two virtual copies on the same account provide no benefits over one. Additionally the Kindle MP3 store uses 1-click and there is no way to disable it. After ignoring the message that MP3s and other digital content were non-returnable and jumping through hoops trying to figure out how to dispute the order I promptly received a refund from Amazon and advice that the only way to prevent it in the future was to remove my billing info for the credit card associated with 1-click on my Amazon account.
Amazon, Apple and others encourage parents to let their kids use their phones and tablets. The sell lots of apps targeted to young children. A lot of them very good apps. I agree that parents have responsibility for their kids, but if you are going to make a device and software for kids, you need to give me the tools to manage my kids purchases and turn them on by default instead of letting me find out after I've been charged for something that I need to change some setting multiple levels deep in some menu to prevent it. You also need to make it possible to return items accidentally purchased unless you do a very good job of preventing accidental purchases.
I like Amazon's prices and convenience. In general I've been impressed by their customer support. In this case I'm still impressed with their customer support but not their policies, and not having more protections against accidental purchases at the MP3 store this long after it was launched is baffling. They are gonna get sued, and they deserve it. Such stupidity is going to drive up their costs and therefore their prices if they don't smarten up.
 
Think of it this way: think of the things you did have growing up that your parents and your grandparents didn't have.

How would you have felt if those were taken away from you, or you were the only kid in school that didn't have it?

You don't need a iPhone but you don't need working electricity or watches or calculators either. "I didn't have ______ therefore kids today shouldn't have _______" is a terrible argument.

How old do you think I am? I assure you that cell phones existed when I was growing up. And a lot of my classmates had cell phones. But I still survived without one.

Actually under the law they can't. You cannot enter a purchase agreement or a contract with a minor, so any purchase or contract accepted by a minor is meaningless and the money isn't theirs. :p

Um, credit card fraud? Children can still be charged with crimes.
 
Think of it this way: think of the things you did have growing up that your parents and your grandparents didn't have.

How would you have felt if those were taken away from you, or you were the only kid in school that didn't have it?

You don't need a iPhone but you don't need working electricity or watches or calculators either. "I didn't have ______ therefore kids today shouldn't have _______" is a terrible argument.

This doesn't make any sense. If all the parents didn't give their kids an iphone, why would that kid (or you) be the only one that doesn't have one. If it's in that instance, then it only the kids who know any better would have one.

It's a good thing to add in protection, but it isn't Apple's fault they let their kid have access to it.

That said, Phone carriers should have a way to make sure you definitely authorized something before they charge you for it.
 
Here is an idea :

How about parents be responsible for their little brats behavior. Kids do not need iPhones and they do not need access to iPhones. I did not have a cell phone growing up and I survived just fine.

I bet your grandpa said the same thing about you watching television as a child, and his grandpa said the same thing about him having a car to get around, and his grandpa for having a musket instead of a spear, and so on.

:rolleyes:

iPhones have parental control. My 13 year old daughter has to ask me to sign in for her to purchase apps on her iTunes and iPod Touch - yeah, it doesn't just apply to iPhones, you know. iPods are design for children and adults alike.
 
Thank you. Why the fuck would you give a "child" a fucking iPhone. If you buy your young child an iPhone then you are a fool.

I didn't have one either growing up and I'm a grown and happily functional adult.

Lighten up a little. iOS runs on several different devices. Your grandparents didn't have game consoles and calculators, and some how they grew up fine too. Its technology.

What I don't like are the incredibly simple games that are purposfully built for very small children. Like popping bubbles, and that ALL the game is. Yet they stick that little banner at the bottom that of course the kid is going to push because its bright and has movement.

Why do assholes make things like this on purpose? Why can't people just make simple apps and be content with the idea that 500K people have downloaded it?
 
My wife and I have an iphone, ipad and ipod.

The ipod is specifically for our kids and they sometimes use the ipad. However they are locked down and the only games on them are a variety of IQ, puzzle, geometry, alphabet, and words games.

I disallow any "non learning" games on them. When they get older they can buy their own phones, I will provide a cheap minute phone for them that blocks texts, internet and data with only 3 numbers programed into them.
 
Thank you. Why the fuck would you give a "child" a fucking iPhone. If you buy your young child an iPhone then you are a fool.

I didn't have one either growing up and I'm a grown and happily functional adult.

"I AM PERFECTLY FUCKING HAPPY DAMN IT!" ;)
 
Um, credit card fraud? Children can still be charged with crimes.

Yes, but thats irrelevant, there has been no crime commited here. Unless the company tries to keep money it has no legal basis for owning that is. They should know the rules, especially with the amount of legal proceedings they engadge in; and if they don't thats their problem
 
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