Apple Offers Refund After British Boy Spends $2500 on In-App Purchases in 15 Minutes

[AlexisV]

We need people to start owning up for their own mistakes. The password was put in by an adult, he's responsible for that purchase.

Not really. There is a raft of legislation with regards to consumer protection in relation to contract formation. By your reasoning, every contractual term put forward by an offeree would be watertight, whether or not there was a serious imbalance between the two parties.

 

[macsmurf]

Apple slogan anno 2007:

"It just works"

Apple slogan anno 2013:

"It just works. But if you let your kids use it make sure to go into System Preferences -> General and Enable Restrictions. Then set Require Password to Immediately. After that it just works. Honest."

 

[samcraig]

The customer should have the presence of mind to ask questions.....if the dad knows he is going to let his 5-year old play games, he should at least be aware enough to find out if there are any parental controls.....

Please don't defend ignorant consumer behavior.....you're spending $500+ on a piece of technology, you should at least have some idea of how it works.....either by asking the retail salesperson or researching it online.....

Apple's slogan isn't an excuse for irresponsible behavior.

Maybe I feel this way because I've been blasted by a customer in two in my retail experience for them not knowing something they never asked about....I did my best to accurately represent the features, but I can't read your damn mind....and I also can't go through every use case for the device there is.....

Consumers can get away with anything these days....not to get political, but what a mirror for the overall attitude of our society.

Laying blame on JUST the parents is wrong. And consumers don't always know what questions to ask. Not because they are stupid. But because it's not something they think about - or because they make assumptions.

This forum is filled with questions - and from people who are more "educated" than most when it comes to Apple products. And that's after they have made purchases and/or done something wrong.

I am not saying the consumer is always right. But the notion that this is because of bad parenting; that people are stupid for not knowing every nuance of their device; and that there's nothing wrong with settings being defaulted to potentially cause a problem vs prevent one - I can't agree with.

And you certainly can't generalize.

 

[HenryDJP]

Because a lot of 5-year-old children are more tech savvy than their parents.

Right and that's why the parent shouldn't have been refunded $2500 because their 5 year old was "tech savvy" and young Master Kitchen knew what he was doing.

 

[samcraig]

No matter how irresponsible: The child didn't cause any damage that the parents might be responsible for. The child purchased things. "Purchase" means there was a contract between seller and purchaser. A contract with a five year old is voidable, which means the child or his guardians can void the contract at any time, at which time the goods have to be returned if possible, and the money has to be returned. When I say "returned if possible", there have been plenty of cases where companies didn't receive goods back and still had to refund the money.

You know - we have a history on here of typically not agreeing on much. But I agree with you here. And that's an aspect I hadn't even really thought of myself. Although one would argue that the person who did authorize the account bears all the responsibility. But I would still agree with you that at the end of the day - it was an unauthorized purchase.

 

[jamojamo]

you're only screwing yourself and your neighbors by defending them.. corporations and banks have exactly one goal in mind.. and that is to take your money (time/labor/etc).. that's it

everything else is secondary.. at the root, they don't give a single care about you or your neighbor.. they don't care if you die. they don't care if you're healthy, they don't care if you're hungry..

why on earth would you care about them?

I can see there is no sense in arguing. I deal with corporations every day for products and services as well as employment which allows me to purchase the things I want and to use that money to a) the government for services, etc. and b) for causes I deem worthy and c) save for retirement so I don't become a burden on society.

I am terribly old-fashoned that way.

I wish you well. Take care and keep an open mind!

 

[ghostface147]

I blame the parents for giving him the password. There shouldn't be a refund.

 

[etrinh]

Except that the limitations you can set in the restrictions menu require the password for EVERY in-app purchase.....he would've either had to buy something that cost $2550 once, of have asked his dad hundreds of times for the password if it was working properly.....

Umm. Kids have memory too. What if the child remembered his dads password? Don't be so naive and think kids are innocent

----------

In this case, Apple screwed up.

I recently had the same issue and Apple refunded the in-app purchases.

Many people wrongly blame the parent. While the restrictions can be set, by default a password in not required for 15 minutes after an application is purchased.

If this setting was defaulted to "immediately," requiring a password as shown in this article, then only parents with kids that have the password would experience this issue which then would be the full responsibility of the parent.

I also think that all the possible in-app purchase features and prices should be fully disclosed so users can be informed in advance.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents.

So the default settings on any apple device should be "kid" mode instead of "adult" mode??

 

[jrswizzle]

Laying blame on JUST the parents is wrong. And consumers don't always know what questions to ask. Not because they are stupid. But because it's not something they think about - or because they make assumptions.

This forum is filled with questions - and from people who are more "educated" than most when it comes to Apple products. And that's after they have made purchases and/or done something wrong.

I am not saying the consumer is always right. But the notion that this is because of bad parenting; that people are stupid for not knowing every nuance of their device; and that there's nothing wrong with settings being defaulted to potentially cause a problem vs prevent one - I can't agree with.

And you certainly can't generalize.

I never blamed the parent, to be honest. Simply want to point out there is a problem with consumers today - they don't think before making large purchases. But we don't need to get into a socio-political discussion here lol....doubt the powers that be would like that.

My view on this is there was an accident, the child was punished (banned from the iPad) and Apple generously refunded all the money. The parents are now educated on the parental controls in place, and hopefully those who see the story will think about this and find these controls as well.

 

[jkrarup]

My son who is now 10 also was able to rack up about $300 in a Freemium IAP. Fortunately my account is tied to PayPal and PayPal saw suspicious activity and put a hold on iTunes purchases or it would have been more.

Apple was gracious and refunded it all but the headaches and time it took to clear it up was enormous. The apple rep did explain about the settings for restricting the IAP which I had no clue even existed even though I am a heavy iPhone/iPad/iPod touch user and beginning Apple developer.

Shouldn't the restrictions default to being OFF for IAP and then the user can app by app Enable IAP as needed?

I just saying.....

 

[samcraig]

So the default settings on any apple device should be "kid" mode instead of "adult" mode??

If that's the label YOU want to call it.

But the default setting for anything that can cost you money should be "no" and you should have to change it to "yes" in my opinion.

Again - it's hypocritical to complain about having to change this setting yet expect others to. Because it's far more likely that those that WANT the feature will know or find out how to make it happen vs those that don't know it exist and wind up getting charged.

 

[applesith]

How do you know they knew parental controls even existed? Why are the settings defaulting to on and not off. Why does it make sense to be passive as opposed to proactive to turn them on?

hmmm an internet device in the hands of a child. I guess they didn't know there are things on the internet not suitable for a child.

 

[jrswizzle]

Umm. Kids have memory too. What if the child remembered his dads password? Don't be so naive and think kids are innocent

I never blamed anyone in particular....but if it were me, I wouldn't type my password for my kid to see.....it comes up as little dots on the screen, just hold it out of site while you type in the password....

These aren't really difficult things to think about....

 

[macsmurf]

So the default settings on any apple device should be "kid" mode instead of "adult" 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?

 

[flat five]

I am terribly old-fashoned that way.

well, it shows.. look, the monetary system is by no means natural.. it's a scam in itself which was created by humans in order to take advantage of other humans.. (well, i'm sure at the root beginnings, the monetary system was developed for good reason.. but very rapidly, the snakes got their fangs in there and ruined it.. and since most people are scared of snakes (literally & figuratively), we just sit back and let them do what they wish..)

I wish you well. Take care and keep an open mind!

that's the thing.. i wish you well too.. i'm not trying to battle you about this.. i'm actually on your side..
i mean, there's nothing for me to 'win' here from you.. the only way i win is if you do too..

but if you want to see me as some looney or whatever, i guess that's fine as well.. just doesn't help anybody is all (except the corporations)..

 

[GenesisST]

I blame the parents for giving him the password. There shouldn't be a refund.

Did they give him the password or just entered it and then the account was "unlocked" for some time? Not everybody knows how this works...

These people could still be good parent and permit a timed access to ipad, but didn't know that and had to take a crap or something.

I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt, since we don't have the full picture on this family. But there are bad parents out there...

There a good things that come out of this:
- Apple does show good faith and shines a positive light on themselves
- Will educate still good, but overwhelm, good parent
- Might get a check box to app store purchase in order to disable "unlocked" state. Remember, you could buy an app, then forget your phone, with no kids involved.


EDIT: That said, I don't think "Zombies vs Ninjas" is appropriate for a 5 year old...

EDIT2: I've just read past the image and the text afterwards and that setting does exist. It should be part of the "iTunes and App Stores" settings, though

 

[26139]

Seriously?

God forbid you'd use the computer with your five year old child instead of letting him play on his own.

 

[theluggage]

So all of us using this and know what we are doing have to enable it just because some people are to lazy to know the product they get before handing it over to a 5 year-old kid?

OK, so parents are lazy and stupid for not knowing about this setting or not remembering to check it every time they hand the device to their kid. You, however, are so clever and important that having to go to the trouble of enabling the setting once and then forget about it is beneath you.

Yeah. Mature.

Parents should take responsibility for the kids - but that doesn't mean it should be open season for businesses to lay booby traps to screw money out of any parent who blinks. Make no mistake - some of these games are designed with the explicit purpose of exploiting the gullible. Kids don't have good judgement - that's why we don't let them drive cars, vote, drink beer, gamble... and some of these games are designed to have the addictiveness of gambling.

...and why shouldn't Apple refund the money? There are no physical goods or services involved, and any entitlements purchased can be revoked, so nobody has actually lost out unless you are seriously suggesting that this kid benefitted to the tune of $2500 in 15 minutes. Perhaps they should just reply "Ha ha! Finders keepers losers weepers!!!"? That would go down well.

If a kid walked into a fast food joint and bought $2500 worth of burgers then yes, consumables would have been consumed, services would have been performed and people would be out of pocket... including the cashier who should get fired for accepting $2500 from a 5-year-old...

 

[samcraig]

hmmm an internet device in the hands of a child. I guess they didn't know there are things on the internet not suitable for a child.

Forget about children for a second - because that's secondary

A device which can be used to make purchases should not default to "yes." You should have to CHOOSE the option.

 

[jrswizzle]

No matter how irresponsible: The child didn't cause any damage that the parents might be responsible for. The child purchased things. "Purchase" means there was a contract between seller and purchaser. A contract with a five year old is voidable, which means the child or his guardians can void the contract at any time, at which time the goods have to be returned if possible, and the money has to be returned. When I say "returned if possible", there have been plenty of cases where companies didn't receive goods back and still had to refund the money.

Except the original user agreement (entered into by the parent who signed up for the Apple ID) likely governs the purchasing here - therefore the original "accepter" of the agreement would bear the responsibility of any purchases made through that account - in this case the parent.

I'm not trying to contradict your overall point - simply stating the child's purchase wouldn't have created another "contract" - and that legally, the owner of the Apple ID would be held responsible for any purchases made through that account.....

That being said, in cases such as theft, or here accidents made by a child, refunds can and are given.

Moral of the story: if you are a parent and allow your young child to use internet devices, make sure you're aware of any parental controls the device has. I find it utterly ridiculous this thought has to be put into some parents' minds rather than it being blatantly obvious that the internet and things connected to your bank account should be monitored when being used by children as they aren't inherently safe.

 

[Berserker-UK]

Right and that's why the parent shouldn't have been refunded $2500 because their 5 year old was "tech savvy" and young Master Kitchen knew what he was doing.

No pocket money for him for the next five years then.

 

[turtlez]

I love it when the reporter asks the kid if he knew what he was doing and the kid looks down and smirks lmao.

On the side note, some developer is very happy right now

 

[MacBookPro13"]

I wonder how happy Greg Kitchen is about the BBC putting his email address & Apple ID on television & the internet for everyone to see.

 

[turtlez]

Forget about children for a second - because that's secondary

A device which can be used to make purchases should not default to "yes." You should have to CHOOSE the option.

I strongly agree. I bought a $12 PSN game I didn't want by knocking the controller and it hit the X button. No password was needed since I had already signed in. Some things make it far too easy to purchase.

 

[tann]

Damn BBC, let the whole world know the poor guys Apple ID then.