First thing I did with the kids iPads was to password protect in app purchases - though it would be nice if it was off by default.
Nanny state hard at work.
It'd probably be in Apple's interest to have a simple-to-use guest/child mode so you can hand your phone to someone else can they can't make purchases or view certain apps; and have retail staff offer to explain to parent-customers how to use it.
Shouldn't be too much effort, is a bullet point feature you can promote, and might help cut off lawsuits like this one.
Why doesn't the EU then tell Apple specifically how they want the fix implemented and when they want it done by ? It seems very foolish to let a company say they would handle it, not get a timeframe, and then complain when the company doesn't implement the fix a way you like it or in the timeframe you wanted ?
NO! This is BLACK or WHITE! ALL or NOTHING! DEATH TO IAP!!!
/sarcasm
But seriously, I think IAP are great. How else are we going to have demos?
Apple needs to introduce an option for their customers to choose to 'opt out' of in app purchases, which simply disable the ability for your device to even make in-app purchases.
Have you ever tried to get the old Mac Pro towards the end? You can read it quite everywhere, also here on MR. In my book when something was made available for years but then gets removed by the gov't, it's pretty much a ban, at least in my sucky English dictionary.
Has anyone here ever been confused when an app prompts you to pay for something? If I'm not mistaken, there's a cancel button. You're never forced to pay for anything.
Who's so brain-dead that they can't figure out how to avoid an in-app purchase? Seems like a non-issue to me, or perhaps a way for European bureaucrats to wedge themselves into the bank account of a very large, American company.
The EU sure seems to whine a lot.
If a child attempts to use a credit card the adult on the other end of the transaction is responsible to not do the deal.
If a merchant accepts a credit card from a child the transaction is not legally enforceable.
Browser choice was not an EU idea
Does Apple still require a credit card to be on file to use the iTunes or App stores? I opened mine a long tie ago and I think I had to provide a card.
Not being contentious. Asking for info.
Ok I'll bite: what's your source for 99% of the App Store being crapware?
Does Apple permit users under 18 to have an account with the App store?
If Apple does than there is no problem. Kid can have his own Apple ID/password and no method of payment linked. Kids could only use free apps.
Children cannot legally enter into a contractual agreement. If a merchant accepts a credit card form a child the transaction is void. Onus is on the seller not the buyer if the buyer is a kid.
And so they should. Apple is pretty much playing the dangerous game of monopoly - something that here in the EU takes very seriously!
Doesn't iOS 8 solve this issue with the family iTunes plan? I.e. A kid wants to buy something. The parents get an alert asking for permission.
Which is why Apple should accommodate their customers properly.
Children cannot legally enter into a contractual agreement. If a merchant accepts a credit card form a child the transaction is void. Onus is on the seller not the buyer if the buyer is a kid.
Billy Pinilis, a New Jersey-based consumer fraud lawyer, says that in the United States, the law doesn't distinguish between a kid buying virtual coins in an app or pilfering your credit card from your wallet to go on a shopping spree -- or for that matter, a thief taking your wallet from your car. An unauthorized purchase is an unauthorized purchase. That, says Pinilis, could have rendered the Apple-FTC settlement moot. "You could make the argument that [the FTC] didn't do anything for consumers. Consumers weren't liable for these charges anyway. What the FTC did was benefit the credit card issuers."
Once you report an unauthorized charge, your credit card company launches its own investigation and may ask you to provide the police report number of your complaint with local law enforcement officials. Sure, your kid used your credit card without your permission. But did he really steal it?
Some parents feel like they have to say yes in order to get fraud protection. In the United Kingdom, 48-year-old Doug Crossan filed an official police complaint against his 13-year-old son, Cameron, after the boy made $6,000 in charges on different digital games, including Plants Vs. Zombies. "I am sure Cameron had no intention to do it, but I had to have a crime reference number if there was any chance of getting any credit card payments refunded," Crossan told a British newspaper
If you think your child would never use your credit card without your knowledge, you may be in for a rude awakening. In fact, thousands of parents have learned the hard way that for kids and teens, charging a purchase is as easy as pressing a button.
When your own kids do the unauthorized purchasing, who pays? The law's answer is clear: You're not liable for unauthorized purchases. But when you layer on credit card companies' liability policies, their understandable interest in getting paid, plus parental bonds of love, things get murky. What does "authorized" really mean? And if your little one charges $100 for "big bowls of treats" in the Tap Pet Hotel game, do you really have to report your kid to the cops before you can have their charges erased from your credit card bill?
Those questions gained higher visibility January 2014 when the Federal Trade Commission ordered Apple to pay out a minimum of $32.5 million to reimburse parents for unauthorized mobile app purchases made by their kids. "Whether you're doing business in the mobile arena or the mall down the street, fundamental consumer protections apply," said FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez in a statement. "You cannot charge consumers for purchases they did not authorize."
The crux of the charges against Apple in a class action lawsuit is that they failed to notify users that entering an iTunes password allowed 15 minutes of access, leaving kids free to make pricey in-game purchases without entering the password again. One girl racked up $2,600 in charges playing the app Tap Pet Hotel; other kids spent $500 in the apps Dragon Story and Tiny Zoo Friends. In at least some cases, kids didn't even realize they were spending real cash, not the imaginary currency of a digital world -- and parents insisted that they shouldn't be held responsible for purchases they didn't make and didn't know about. The settlement also requires Apple to change its billing practices to require a higher level of parental consent.
EU grow some brains we in the UK think you are a bunch monkeys, you think password protection, in-app purchase disable, restrictions is not good enough just look at Google, zero. If parents have issues with iPad with in-app purchase made by kids, are you think or what disable the frelling thing
I find parents' knowledge about their own technology lacking.
Which is why Apple should accommodate their customers properly.
Nanny state hard at work.