In-app purchases in iPad, iPhone, iPod kids' games touch off parental firestorm

[slgrieb]

From today's Washington Post:
By Cecilia Kang
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 8, 2011; 12:34 AM

"Over the winter break from school, 8-year-old Madison worked to dress up her simple mushroom home on the iPhone game Smurfs' Village. In doing so, she also amassed a $1,400 bill from Apple. The Rockville second-grader didn't realize the Smurfberries she was buying on the popular game by Capcom Interactive were real purchases, much like buying a pair of shoes from Zappos or movie tickets from Fandango. After all, lots of children's games require virtual payments of pretend coins, treasure chests and gold to advance to levels.

But like a growing number of parents, Madison's mom, Stephanie Kay, was shocked to find very real charges from iTunes show up in her e-mail box days later."

"...the practice is troubling parents and public interest groups, who say $99 for a wagon of Smurfberries or $19 for a bucket of snowflakes doesn't have any business in a children's game."

No doubt this is all Papa Smurf's fault, somehow. Full story here.

[TrekCaptainUSA]

Lol. Failure in app development.

Apple should just have it ask for the pw each time, in my opinion. Would fix the entire issue.

[CeeBee]

Parent failure. Don't give a CC# for an account that can be potentially abused.. a $10 itunes card is enough, and itunes cards can be bought for less than their face value...

[Niclo Iste]

Nothing new to me, the gaming industry has been doing this with all sorts of games for the past 5+ years. Just like that webkins stuff, and the MMORPGs that have "micro payments". The solution I always had in mind was,
1. You should provide your photo ID number and CC to open an account (there are tools to verify the photo ID without having to physically have the card, I used to use one at a job I had),
2. Agree that it's you who is on the photo ID, agree to immediate termination of accounts with no reactivation or refund in the event it is proven that you used a parents/other persons ID to buy and to play the game if it has an M rating.
3. All micropayments should be done via phone if it's a child targetted game.
4. There would be a daily, weekly, or monthly spending cap to prevent fraud and addicts from ruining themselves.

[CeeBee]

Nothing new to me, the gaming industry has been doing this with all sorts of games for the past 5+ years. Just like that webkins stuff, and the MMORPGs that have "micro payments". The solution I always had in mind was,
1. You should provide your photo ID number and CC to open an account (there are tools to verify the photo ID without having to physically have the card, I used to use one at a job I had),
2. Agree that it's you who is on the photo ID, agree to immediate termination of accounts with no reactivation or refund in the event it is proven that you used a parents/other persons ID to buy and to play the game if it has an M rating.
3. All micropayments should be done via phone if it's a child targetted game.
4. There would be a daily, weekly, or monthly spending cap to prevent fraud and addicts from ruining themselves.

Who would want this? It would be less convenient to spend, therefore less revenue for the producers of the game. That goes against the idea of making as much profit as possible, fast. It is easier to handle the issue by offering a $1000 refund here and there while grabbing more money from others.

[Niclo Iste]

That's my point. Thievery is thievery. Even if it's by convincing the target that it's ok to hand over the money.

Let's just think of this scenario.

*Knock knock*
Little girl answers door
Man: Hi little girl, I'm a teddy bear salesman and you can have this one of a kind bear if you get mommy and daddy's wallets and check books and hand them to me.
Little girl does as he says.
Man goes and cleans out the accounts.

Truely a harmless crime, I mean hey it was willingly given to him.

[CeeBee]

That's my point. Thievery is thievery. Even if it's by convincing the target that it's ok to hand over the money.

Let's just think of this scenario.

*Knock knock*
Little girl answers door
Man: Hi little girl, I'm a teddy bear salesman and you can have this one of a kind bear if you get mommy and daddy's wallets and check books and hand them to me.
Little girl does as he says.
Man goes and cleans out the accounts.

Truely a harmless crime, I mean hey it was willingly given to him.

Not even close.
More like kid being sent to the toy store with a wallet full of cash.

[Niclo Iste]

Eh, well regardless that's my take, I think there should be rules like that because I also play these games and I get tired of tommy the vulgar 5 year old being a nuisance in a game designed for grown ups in the first place.