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Why is it Apple's problem if you give your child your password?

Go after banks for only having a password to protect their cards. Hello bank - I've given my child my pin and they've withdrawn $1,000. Please reimburse me.
 
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.

It is like that by default. You need to enter a password to make an IAP, even if you've just entered your password to download the app.
 
Is it just me... I can remember a slide from a keynote that showed : Free apps will always be free. Iirc that meant that, at least, the free apps would not have in app purchases.
 
Nanny state hard at work.

As soon as they added Italy... It's a "Mary Sue" shakedown. They saw the US get a nice payoff so now they want one too... Several European countries are plain brazen about it. As these are Civil Law countries They will endlessly debate what rights people have when acquiring Free products, what entitlements they have to features and the whatnot. They will debate what "Free" means,... Over and over.

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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.

Yes this!
That would be nice to have a mode where the apps were the same, but you could lock certain information out to the guest user.. And timers.. For bedtime!!!

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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 ?

Where is the hourly rate for the lawyers? Where is the political grandstanding? Where is the big payout at the end?

If they just set down rules, companies might follow them, then it's harder to sue them... And OTHER companies will follow the rules too.. So they don't have to pay lawyer fees... It's criminal!!
 
Google is the worst at allowing children buying apps and in-app purchases as I had a little nephew that spent over £30 on these apps with a invalid card and no password requirement needed, a fault in the redeem card used to give him credit auto transferred over to using the card when he used up all his credit, Google did not give a dam when contacted.

When he used an iPad it stops him thanks to the easy to use kid proof parental controls that one can enable with one touch, Google had nothing to do this and still open to kids, if it dose it is well hidden nice one Google you need finded big time, follow Apples lead.

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

Also how are kids buying apps when they need a credit card or of legal age to purchase apps, kids should not be using their parents iTunes account, they should have their own and use the redeem options or give them credit morons
 
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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?

You put a "Try" button next to the "Buy" button in the App Store.

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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.

Yes, and they should put it under "Settings" -> "General" -> "Restrictions", so that way it would be logical and everyone would easily find it.
 
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.

Yes it's a ban.. But Apple chose not to update the product for three years and ran out the grace period for the rules they were following. The EU gave several years to follow the rule, Apple was choosing to beat the clock with the new Mac Pro and failed, so they got blocked from selling. Literally nothing to see here.
 
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.

No, they just have strong consumer protection rights in Europe unlike in the US.
 
An organization that's over €11,547,539,000,000 in debt is concerned about in-app purchases?
 
The EU sure seems to whine a lot.

Fine. The word you are looking for is "fine".

And why shouldn't they? The fines are usually set as a percentage of revenue, which in Apple's case would probably be enough to bail a couple of the smaller member states out of debt.
 
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.



It depends on where you live, but it's the parents setting up the credit card accounts using their card.
they are responsible.
 
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.
 
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.

Again, it depends on your country. For example here not long ago a 15 year old went to prison for spending a 500 peso bill that was fake even though he did not know it was fake and the judge said it did not matter. Different thing but still the onus is on the parents for letting the kid have the card. That's the way it works in some countries.

Apple permits those 13 and over, the payment method can be removed immediately after setting it up. Don't set your kid up with an account featuring your card if you don't want it used.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2534
 
And so they should. Apple is pretty much playing the dangerous game of monopoly - something that here in the EU takes very seriously!

Monopoly in what? iPhones? They certainly don’t have a monopoly in cell phones, tablets or computers.

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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.

Yeah. The confusing thing about this story is what does EU want Apple to do that they have not done already?
 
What is hard about blocking in-app buying, it is easy to do it is in your settings, restrictions should I say more or are you lot in the EU to think to know what restriction means

Apple should enable it by default and have the ability to make an in-app purchase by typing in the password and after that buy it locks up again as I think some disable it and forget enable the restriction again when handing back over to their kid
 
Which is why Apple should accommodate their customers properly.

No. People shouldn't buy things and not learn to use them. This isn't on Apple. This is the most idiotic bunch of BS I've ever seen.

"I didn't watch my kids, better go blame someone else"
 
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.

You are not exactly right here, according to this article. Unauthorized use is unauthorized use even with your 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

As noted here the lawsuit against apple is not that the child made the purchases but that they were not notified of the 15 minute period mentioned below. I don't know if apple has fixed that problem yet, but when they do it will be on the parents to file unauthorized use against their kids to get their card credited.

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.

http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/whos-responsible-kids-unauthorized-charges-1279.php

It's not as cut and dried as you think when setting up an account for a kid using your credit card.
 
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

Perhaps you should read the note.
 
I find parents' knowledge about their own technology lacking.
Which is why Apple should accommodate their customers properly.

at what point do you draw the line that a company should be forced to accommodate their customers lack of knowledge?

the point here is that the only obligation Apple should have to change its software to accommodate ignorant people is if they want to keep and attract more customers... At some point consumers need to be held responsible for protecting themselves... I think the fact that people have this problem with in app purchase yet they continue to make more purchases and downloads and continue to buy new iphones is a pretty big indicator that its not actually an issue for consumers, and they are just using this convenient consumer protection to get free money...

most people wanting this change are probably the same people complaining about big brother and how much the government is watching and trying to control us - now you want to give them the power to dictate what products are allowed on the market and that they have to be dumbed down for the common idiot on the street? Where is the EU consumer protection laws to protect the smart person who these suggested changes would hinder and provide a less enjoyable experience on the product they already purchased before this change was mandated??
 
Nanny state hard at work.


This the same nanny state you want to keep net neutrality ?
The same many state you want to take away the rights of the people who own the network, own the equipment and want to work in a "free Market" where the "Market will decide" ?
 
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