Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Everything requires responsibility.

People show restraint with their bank cards and credit/charge cards, why is an iTunes account different (or Paypal or BidPay/Western Union, etc.)

I would never blindly enter my password for my iTunes account after someone else used my device and they did something to prompt for it. I would cancel the item and ask for them to perform the task again (or do it myself.) It also would not matter who it is because in the end I am responsible for those purchases or its use.

I admit I went searching for the Parental Controls and they took a while to find probably because I vaguely remember seeing Parent Controls at some point in the past but it is not Restrictions. Once I found Restrictions, it was pretty clear that everything was self explanatory to me (which I am drowning in technology so I am not a good comparison overall because of my tech expertise.)

As I previously mentioned, the scenario which involves the password being entered, the child racking up 2500 in IAPs, the owner getting an email notification about 2500 in charges, them calling Apple to reverse the charges and cancel the purchases before anything irreversible happened, is pretty much standard operating procedure. This would be different if it was months later and the developer was paid out, etc. As it stands, no one was out anything except maybe Apple for the time spent on customer care (but they make that up in their margins.)

I will go so far as to say 'Good Job Apple on being a cognizant payment processor' which is far better than some organizations I have to deal with that are backstopped by a very large government (who operates a payment system where you get refunds on a piece of paper good for 30 days but can not be used unless you add cash to the piece of paper and then take both to a cashier to add the money back on the card that should have just had the charges rolled back in the first place.)

IAPs work pretty much as intended, the default setup is a middle ground between so secure it is a pain to use and not so lax that purchases are easily racked up without any interaction. This scenario is more an edge case than anything substantiative (and that goes for the 23 million others too which is tiny on the scale of purchasing done via the iTunes App Store.) The only thing here that maybe worthwhile for Apple is to actually include a small section in the pamphlet on the Parental Controls/Restrictions to point people there who may actually read the documentation (and again for those that do not, you accept your own destiny then.)
 
That's the correct approach.

Doing otherwise would be like asking the car salesman to walk you through the OBD fuel injection algorithms when you're out shopping for a car.

I think a more apt analogy would be purchasing a car, telling the salesman you know how to operate everything and then find yourself driving home in a rain storm with no clue how to turn on the windshield wipers.
 
Playing dumb is no excuse for being a good parent and setting up devices you provide for your children to use correctly. That said, IAP is only ok to me in situations where you are offering expansions to an existing app. IAP for points/coins/in-game one-time use stuff is degenerate and should be banned and moderated on all apps, IMO.
 
Apple does ask for the password. And then remembers it for 15 minutes. That is adult mode. If you require passwords for each purchase then yes that is kid mode.

The default behavior should be "require password before any and all purchases".

Do you disagree when it comes to requiring password for App Store purchases too?
 
Apple does ask for the password. And then remembers it for 15 minutes. That is adult mode. If you require passwords for each purchase then yes that is kid mode.

It's surprise mode, and not in a good way.
 
Never entered my cc info into iTunes ever, have used gift cards from day one. You can buy the gift card codes online for less than face value anyway. I'll never get a surprise bill or get my cc info stolen, ever.
 
Isn't this just common sense? Under our British law all contracts with minors are void anyway. A Child cannot act on behalf of its parent either.
 
Never entered my cc info into iTunes ever, have used gift cards from day one. You can buy the gift card codes online for less than face value anyway. I'll never get a surprise bill or get my cc info stolen, ever.

Ditto.

It is so much safer to use gift cards.
 
Come on, you do in fact know why in-app purchases are enabled by default right? It's business after all. Nobody should have to spell that out for you.

Not being sarcastic but did you mean you couldn't care less? ;)

Not everybody wants apps to auto update. I certainly don't. Sometimes apps get changed or features get taken away. A smart user should check out what's being updated before blindly pressing the update button. Too many times people come here P.O'd that Apple or a developer took away something in the recent update. Well don't update until you read.

Hey nobody should have to spell out for you that pissing off your customers isn't business friendly either?

And no one said they should force auto-updates on everyone. Many of these apps constantly are updating. Most aren't anywhere near mission critical. And, nobody, that has a life, has time to research every update before they hit the update button. It should be an option.

Wake me up when you get a few kids.
 
Last edited:
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.