A six-year-old bought $16K worth of in-game content on an iPad

[Chris Smith]

• A six-year-old bought in-app purchases worth more than $16,000 on an iPad this summer, not knowing he was spending actual money to get access to more characters and faster speeds in Sega’s Sonic Forces.
• His mom discovered the charges in July and reported it as fraud to Chase.
• The investigation that followed confirmed that the purchases were genuine, and she had to directly address the matter with Apple.
• With a few simple settings, in-app purchases can be prevented on Apple devices, including the iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV.

In the early years of the app stores, many parents discovered that their children were able to make in-app purchases in their favorite games with relative ease. Most of those children had no idea that they were spending actual money; they just enjoyed their games. And most parents might not have been aware they could limit in-app purchases or that they should consider taking steps to prevent their offspring from spending any cash on in-app content. The app stores evolved, as Apple, Google, Amazon, and everyone else running digital stores on mobile devices have taken additional steps to prevent children from using in-app purchases without explicit consent. Still, the problem hasn’t completely disappeared, and some parents might find themselves stuck with unexpected smartphone bills. Like Jessica Johnson, the mother of a six-year-old who thought she had been defrauded when seeing that someone had spent $16,293 of her money this summer. It turns out it was her boy who purchased content from an iPad while playing a Sega game.

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A six-year-old bought $16K worth of in-game content on an iPad originally appeared on BGR.com on Mon, 14 Dec 2020 at 06:50:05 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Via BRG - Boy Genius Report