UK Gov To Investigate 'Aggressive' In-app Purchases 152
hypnosec writes "The UK Government will be examining whether free to download apps are putting unfair pressure on kids to pay up for additional content within the game through in-app purchases. Office of Fair Trading (OFT), UK, will be carrying out the investigation of games that include 'commercially aggressive' in-app purchases after a number of cases have been reported whereby parents have incurred huge bills after their kids have spent huge amounts on in-app purchases."
Yes (Score:5, Insightful)
You mean like a game that lets you make steady progress for a few hours, then suddenly ups the difficulty level to a point where the only way to continue is to pay for something? Few adults can resist, how many kids would be able to?
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Few adults can resist? The vast majority of people who play these games (Farmville, Angry Birds etc.) never buy any content. The developers are playing the numbers game, it's OK if only a tiny percentage pay if you have more than a million of people playing.
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Forget that - what about games like Injustice: Gods Among Us which makes it IMPOSSIBLE to continue playing unless you use a consumable to refresh your energy pool (or to stop playing entirely for an hour or more)? And, when I say impossible to continue, I'm not exaggerating - you cannot fight if your characters' energy level is too low and that happens _VERY_ fast (you can find yourself unable to play in ten or fifteen minutes, even with "smart" energy management). It's an awesome game that I enjoy a great
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Mind you, those are "one-off" purchases - once you've paid for Small World "Cursed" expansion, you've got it forever (or until Small World 2 comes out - I've pledged for the Kickstarter project).
A little late for that... (Score:5, Interesting)
... the gaming industry has turned into a crime syndicate over the last 6-7 years. It's been discusting with the rise of F2P and charging for virtual items in MMO's with both WoW and diablo 3 being among the biggest offenders.
Reality is we need to crack down on software you can never own and can be "turned off" whenever a company says so. So many older apps/games functionality is fubar because of current anti-customer industry practices. The bad thing is kids and stupid adults feed these companies money year after year.
Simple Solution (Score:2)
Give kids their own debit cards so they can spend their allowance/paychecks online without risking their family's budget. No need nanny-state crackdowns here.
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"Deerhunter Reloaded" is a good example. You do get an "allowance" of 10 coins/week. But that doesn't really pay for much, just a few rounds of special ammo. In the beginning you are desperate for virtual cash from each hunt, but after a point, all the high end stuff is actually requiring virtual gold coins - infinite life batteries, infinite time scopes. These are priced from 250 to 5000 gold coins. There is absolutely no way you could "save" for these items. The only way is to take the quick way and buy t
Education for parents needed - set a PIN! (Score:3)
My 5 year old son taught me a very important lesson about having a PIN on your payment methods...
Luckily it only cost me £25 ($40).
Not being a great reader my son just clicks OK to all the boxes that pop up, so there is great opportunity for game manufacturers to dupe unsuspecting parents into spending lots of their cash.
It is a one time only scam though which I really should have thought through but I, along with thousands of other hapless parents, have inadvertently contributed to Zepto Labs' coffers.
Education for parents is the solution IMHO. I got mine the hard way ;-)
Re:Education for parents needed - set a PIN! (Score:5, Insightful)
"Not being a great reader my son just clicks OK ..."
Isn't that the root of all the problems? Not only payments but also viruses, trojans and other crap.
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Well, it's known as the Dancing Pigs [wikipedia.org] problem. Basically, anything that gets in a user's way is summarily dealt with. The more desirable the outcome, the more the user will ignore things that get in their way.
People want to do stuff. The tools they use should accomplish doing that stuff. Like a car is used to get from point A to point B. Now, some users like
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... It is a one time only scam...
A scam is essentially criminal enterprise. Just because kids (or parents) don't understand what is going doesn't make it okay to take advantage of them.
Education for parents is the solution IMHO. I got mine the hard way ;-)
Education is great at protection people from scams, but it won't even reach a majority of the users.
These scams should be prosecuted, they create a toxic business environment for everybody who tries build a legitimate business.
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I have grown adults in their fifties who ask me what to do when we're looking at something and a popup comes up when I'm at their side. I tell them to read it outloud and make a decisión on the two buttons below it. It's still hard for them to do.
Five minutes later a different question or error pops up and I still have to *remind* them that they are not reading an alien language. It is a pain.
Multiuser tablets (Score:2)
Isn't part of the problem that most popular tablets/phones are single user only? Android only recently added this feature in 4.2 and iOS is (AFAIK) single user only.
Having a different login for the kids would solve the problem.
Turning it off is no option? (Score:4, Interesting)
There's a lot of nasty software out there that is specifically targeted at kids and charges huge amounts for ingame items. My kids are at a young age and they simply do not understand the difference between real cash and virtual ingame cash, to them it's all the same. So if an app says 'do you want to buy this for 99,99 euros', they just tap 'yes'.
What I don't understand is why a parent would give an iPad/Nexus/whatever with a fully accessible master account to a child. On my iPad I just disabled in-app purchases and set password to 'every time' instead of 'once every 15 minutes'. And no app buying or removing either.
WTF is billing enabled in the first place? (Score:2)
What is the billing mechanism, anyways? Is it the wireless carrier? I'm an adult, and I wouldn't want that billing "feature" enabled on my phone, just in case I fat-fingered the wrong key.
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On Android products, the billing would be through Google Play or through the info passed on by google play to the company or individual who is offering the "app" for purchase.
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Do you need to have an iTunes account to use your iGadgets?
You can use any iOS device without having any account. You need an iTunes account to buy anything or to get free downloads. However, that account doesn't need any credit card or debit card attached to it, and in that case if there is no money in the account, you just can't buy anything. You can pay in money via giftcards (which is highly recommended because you usually find giftcards sold at less than face value), in which case you can't spend more than the money in your account.
You still need a password
Let's not blame the parents (Score:4, Insightful)
Anyway, the point is that many would not understand the technology or technological trends in a way that we would on Slashdot. To many a game is a game, whether physical (a board game or card game or some such) or virtual (Solitaire anyone?) Games in the past do not allow you to 'buy extras' mid game, so this behaviour is unexpected. From past experience allowing your child (or mother) to play a game on a computer or iPad would be considered safe - the possibility of actual money being spent would not be considered and therefore not dealt with. To be honest, not being an iPad owner nor a computer game player, I would not be aware of this 'feature' in games - after all I've never seen it in Solitaire!
So let's not blame the parents. Let's instead blame those taking advantage of the possibilities of new technology and of the naivete of actual users. It is this that's behind the investigated by the OFT.
I'll go against my usual sentiments (Score:3)
Usually, I'm the first to cry "no way" if government thinks it needs to butt in with the thinkofthechildren card. But they do have a point here. Game companies are tying to use the naivety and gullibility of kids to squeeze money out of them. And short of 24/7 monitoring, there is little parents can do. More and more games require you to enter a CC number "just in case", so you can play at all. And let's be honest, you can tell your kids 10 times that they must not spend real money, often it's easy to overlook whether you're spending in game or real money on your purchase. It's deliberately done so it's hard for the user to notice, and twice so for kids who don't really have a working concept of the value of money. For a 5 year old, 1, 10 and 100 bucks are just numbers, they don't really know how much is "much" and what is still "little". Not to mention that many little things add up, and kids have even less a concept for that.
What I would still prefer to a regulation would be some kind of "child friendly environment" ad sticker that gets promoted and that gets handed to games that don't try to rip off kids, as a guideline for parents which games are suitable for their children. Such games would, e.g. offer online purchases only for vouchers instead of CCs for kids under 14, would allow parents a separate login to monitor their kids' spending habits, would constantly show how much money has been spent this month already and would allow parents to set limits to how much their kids may spend per week or month. I could well see something like a "seal of approval" by some child protection group that such games could use to advertise their games, what government should do is either form such a group or endorse a reputable one and advertise that "seal" as a way for parents to discriminate between good and bad games.
From the urso-sylvanian scatology dept. (Score:2)
The UK Government will be examining whether free to download apps are putting unfair pressure on kids to pay up for additional content within the game through in-app purchases.
Let's help them with that so they can get on with the important job of searching the Pope's quarters for suspicious crucifixes and rosaries...
0. Kids are generally easier to con and less responsible than adults. That's why we don't let them drive, drink, vote or have credit cards.
1. Yes - they're disingenuously called "free-to-play" games and every app store is heaving with them. Technically you can enjoy the game without paying, but they're specifically designed to tempt you to open your wallet. Particul
$100 to $500 for Simpsons: Tapped Out (Score:4, Insightful)
But the solution is so simple... (Score:2)
Just never allow any form of payment on your device. No credit card, no phone billing, no store-bought 'credits', nothing, nada, zilch. This does mean you and those around you can not use a whole range of programs on that device but you'll soon find out you're not missing out on anything at all. Nothing. No bucket of smurfberries ever made anyone a better person. No virtual furniture ever made anyone a happier person. No VIP-badge ever turned someone from self-suggested failure into a social success.
This is
Free games with paid for advantages (Score:2)
Re:Your kid, spending your money . . . (Score:4, Insightful)
This is myopic, and I bet you are not a parent. In fact I bet you're probably still a kid, with that attitude.
It is not a new trend that companies make it easy to spend huge amounts of money before a parent knows what's going on. Buying a kid a toy used to be a safe bet, the purchase of the item was the sum total of the toy's price. Nowadays, every device has a built in app-store or similar functionality and a credit card is required to even make the device function (why does Apple require a credit card to download free apps or update apps that you've already paid for?!).
Expecting parents to be looking over the shoulder of their kids, who are still too young to have developed the ability to fully comprehend the consequences of spending 50c every few minutes over the span of a month, is unreasonable, and companies that engage in predatory sales in this manner should not be given a free pass on the back of the "well parents should be looking after their kids" argument.
I owned and ran a cell phone shop for 10 years, and one of the most frequent complaints was parents giving a "safety phone" to their kids at age 15 only to rack up huge bills on premium ringtone services. Sure, those kids should probably have been on prepaid, but that does not clear the companies charging $5 per ringtone, and then auto subscribing the number to a $5/day new ringtone service of responsibility. Yes, this happened, just like I'm describing it.
Companies feeding on the impulsiveness of children should be strung up and flogged. So should Apple, for making it a requirement that a credit card be entered into the phone at all times.
Re:Your kid, spending your money . . . (Score:5, Informative)
Except it is not 50c every few minutes. In some cases it is £69.99 ($99.99 at Apple exchange rates) every few minutes.
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Good point. My cousins are miffed at me because I pointed out to their parents that iTunes and the iPod also do not require you to pay for and download content which you already own digitally. It's possible to put a music CD into an Apple computer and have iTunes rip the CD into the appropriate FLAC/AAC/MP4 format needed for iTunes and the iPod.
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No, I can't. People in the US, UK and a handful of other countries can, but for many, including in Apple's biggest market [appleinsider.com], it is not an option.
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Nowadays, every device has a built in app-store or similar functionality and a credit card is required to even make the device function (why does Apple require a credit card to download free apps or update apps that you've already paid for?!).
That's simply not true.
http://s.iosfans.com/?u=http://cdn.macorg.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/free-apple-account-002.png [iosfans.com]
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2534 [apple.com]
Plus, if you do have a credit card set up, then purchases require the password to be entered. You didn't give a password connected to your credit card to your kid did you?
On top of that, there are parental controls (under a different password) on the iOS devices, including one that turns off in-app purchase,
Further more, gift cards are available if you
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At least until relatively recently Apple required the password to be entered even for free downloads and updates of existing apps.
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This is the same problem 99% of security experts seem to not understand: If you require passwords for everything that dilutes the security for when it's really needed.
If the parents only had to type the password when they spend real money, they would realize that they need to keep it safe. Heck, the amount of times iOS bugged me about my password I wouldn't be surprised if some parents just said "screw it, the password's hunter2. Don't buy anything though". Just to stop their kids from bugging them every 5
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This is the same problem 99% of security experts seem to not understand: If you require passwords for everything that dilutes the security for when it's really needed. If the parents only had to type the password when they spend real money, they would realize that they need to keep it safe. Heck, the amount of times iOS bugged me about my password I wouldn't be surprised if some parents just said "screw it, the password's hunter2. Don't buy anything though". Just to stop their kids from bugging them every 5 minutes.
Nonsense. You do not have to enter your password unless you are installing software (free or paid). You let your kids install software of any kind? Crazy, I say. My kids can't install jack without me showing up to enter the password - if I approve. And they know not to ask to install everything in the world. The answer is no.
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No, not crazy. I'd say you just like being authoritarian. If you don't trust your kids with a computer maybe you should just not let them have one. Almost every computer/game machine made so far has operated in a way that "trusts" kids to use them. What sort of harmful stuff can they get on the App store anyway which they couldn't get on the web?
Credit card info is of course another matter, one which I would put on a different level of security than "let my kids download doodle jump on their iPad".
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No, not crazy. I'd say you just like being authoritarian. If you don't trust your kids with a computer maybe you should just not let them have one. Almost every computer/game machine made so far has operated in a way that "trusts" kids to use them. What sort of harmful stuff can they get on the App store anyway which they couldn't get on the web? Credit card info is of course another matter, one which I would put on a different level of security than "let my kids download doodle jump on their iPad".
It's not authoritarian to protect them, dipwad. Do your kids have administrative privileges on their PC's? If they do, they've got metric shitloads of malware installed.
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In case you didn't know this, Apple's App store uses the "walled-garden" model. Basically they review all software and developers need to obey strict guideline to be approved. Between online porn, social networks and cyberbullying I don't really think malware on the App store is much of an issue.
PCs are of course different, but consider that before Windows XP there was hardly such thing as restricted accounts on PCs. Sure, malware was sometimes a problem (even without user interaction) but we grew up fine w
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In case you didn't know this, Apple's App store uses the "walled-garden" model. Basically they review all software and developers need to obey strict guideline to be approved. Between online porn, social networks and cyberbullying I don't really think malware on the App store is much of an issue.
PCs are of course different, but consider that before Windows XP there was hardly such thing as restricted accounts on PCs. Sure, malware was sometimes a problem (even without user interaction) but we grew up fine with the "reckless" amount of control we had on our PCs. If anything things have gotten much much safer between improved Windows security, firewalls and paranoid anti-virus software.
If you really want to have total control over what your kids do then I guess that's up to you. The technology of today makes it possible to completely monitor them, in the digital as well as the real world. Being overprotective is probably a natural kind of development.
I'm well aware of all that. The appearance of Administrative rights on personal computers is a direct result of all the malware out there. If you're allowing all users on your computers to be administrators, you're very naive. Just like anyone who allows their kids to have their iTunes passwords is naive. It's not as if you need the password to USE the device; only for installation of software. Of course that flies in the face of your rant about requiring "passwords for everything." You claimed that iOS bug
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I'd say it's more to do with Windows' evolution towards a multi-user OS. On a more technical note stuff like file system access control has improved security against viruses and remote hacking.
I don't consider myself "administrator" to anyone else's PC. I have my own computers and accounts which I of course keep to myself. In a corporate environment you need a different policy of course.
About iOS: Adding and removing Apps is just about the only thing this "OS" lets you do. In that context I suppose you can
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I used to watch movies a dozen times back in the day cause VHS tapes were so fucking expensive. I would have thought that kids these days might have moved on as technology progressed.
Scrabble sure offers hours of "play"-ability. But as a kid I'd have found the 3D action and racing games more engaging. And I still do. Maybe your kids aren't having the fun they could have.
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Most of the stuff on iOS is only good for five minutes. Occaisonly you'll find a gem worth playing much longer. That's kind of the beauty of it, exploring what's out there and finding new stuff. I can certainly spend hours on a game that's only marginally enjoyable, but why should I if there's so much else out there to discover?
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Most of the stuff on iOS is only good for five minutes. Occaisonly you'll find a gem worth playing much longer. That's kind of the beauty of it, exploring what's out there and finding new stuff. I can certainly spend hours on a game that's only marginally enjoyable, but why should I if there's so much else out there to discover?
I would have to disagree with fervor. I download something new at most once every two weeks. You must be stricken with a bad case of ADD.
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iOS Restrictions (parental controls) allows you to choose to have that 15 minutes, or require a password for every download.
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It still does.
Who's device is it? If it's the kids, then they have their own account, with whatever financial arrangements you choose.
If it's your device, then you wouldn't want the kid adding and updating apps without permission.
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Kids under 13 can't have an Apple account. A few years ago it was 18.
Maybe now they've got some kind of parent managed account like you describe, but if so all this stuff is pretty recent.
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The problem is that the same password is used for everything. After the kid asks you to enter it the 20th time to enable some free feature or change some setting the parent just hands it over.
They need to implement a separate password for purchases.
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The problem is that the same password is used for everything.
No it's not. The Apple ID is on thing, it's used for downloading.
Parental controls is a pin number.
And the passcode to access the device in the first place is a different one again.
If you're saying there should be a different password for free and non-free app downloads, that's straying into needlessly complicated territory. Not Apple's style.
We're talking about YOUR iOS device here and YOUR account. You should take an interest in what apps the kid is downloading, even if they are free.
If it's the kids own
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This is myopic, and I bet you are not a parent. In fact I bet you're probably still a kid, with that attitude.
The clue is in his name, "PolygamousRanchKid"
But yeah giving your kids access to unlimited credit is insane. It's partly a matter of discipline as if they weren't doing that they might be phoning premium rate phone lines for similar gimmicks although I guess they'd have to be on the line for hours to run up these sorts of sums.
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Buying a kid a toy used to be a safe bet, the purchase of the item was the sum total of the toy's price.
When? In the 1950s? Almost every toy sold in last 50 years was designed to make the kid whine for the rest of the series. GI Joe, Lego, Pokemon, Barbie, Matchbox, etc.
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why does Apple require a credit card to download free apps or update apps that you've already paid for?
They don't. They certainly don't make it easy to proceed without a credit card but you _can_ set up an iTunes account and download and update free apps without a credit card. My apologies for not having a step-by-step available (it's been a while since I had to set up a CC-free account) but you can find the details with a little google-fu. But, it is possible.
Apple should make it _easier_, but it is possible.
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Why does your kid need a IPad or a IPhone? Why not buy him a computer with an OS which does not have app stores.
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Why does your kid need a IPad or a IPhone? Why not buy him a computer with an OS which does not have app stores.
You did say BUY a computer but there's little sale outside these top prebundled OSs:
Ubuntu App store [ubuntu.com]
MacOS X App store [apple.com]
Windows 8 App store [microsoft.com]
It won't be easy finding legal Windows 7 copy without online merchants so that you can live App-free on your new computer.
Unless you plan to build your own PC and put non-Ubuntu FOSS on it, other choices call for wading into uncanny territory or buying older unsold items and used stuff
That said, I don't promote the idea of purchasing a tablet or phones for kids. There's alr
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Oh-ho-ho-ho....
I've set up my special Christmas line just for you... [youtube.com]
The reality is, it's insane for any company with a decent reputation to be getting involved with these scams. Even companies that aren't involved with scamming people might eventually be splattered with mud (or is it mud...) from this kind of sharp practice.
I mean the video game industry is already the go to area for every moral panic, and this is a case where they are being legitimately sleazy and evil...
Seriously, this is on the level of
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Expecting parents to be looking over the shoulder of their kids,
No, it isn't. That is your job as a parent. If you don't want your kids to spend money, don't give them the password.
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Can't speak for nowadays because I don't use iTunes any more, but I remember that going back when I registered it was not possible to create an account without a credit card or an equivalent debit service. This was one of the European iTunes stores.
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It required one for me to sign up, but that was back at the first gen touch. I cannot speak to anything more recently.
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No, the solution is another provider who don't force a credit card. Such as android - no card needed!
Or you can go to the apple store and try to buy an iphone/ipad with cash. Claim that you don't have a credit card, ask them to set up the device for you. Maybe they can? If they tell you to get a card "no risk because you don't have to use it, tell the clerk to ready the device using his own card. No risk because there will be no use, right?
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Only in the same sense that the Amazon deliveries can only be cancelled by burning down your own house so the package has nowhere to be delivered.
Google is your friend.
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=itunes+store+no+credit+card [lmgtfy.com]
Answer is to click the "None" button when asked for payment details.
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Can't speak for nowadays because I don't use iTunes any more, but I remember that going back when I registered it was not possible to create an account without a credit card or an equivalent debit service. This was one of the European iTunes stores.
You could _always_ open with a credit card, and then immediately remove the credit card from the account. You could also open an account without a credit card if you knew how: You just had to click "Buy" on a free item, and then you could open an account with no credit card or even a gift card at all.
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You can make immediate purchases through Google Android - for some 3D shooting games, the basic clothing like a Hawaii T-shirt, beach sunglasses and flip-flops is free, but the camouflage gear, armor, and infinite rounds costs real money.
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there should be a no pin mode for free stuff / upd (Score:2)
vthere should be a no pin mode for free stuff / updates.
Back when I had WOW cable they made to you go though all the buy screens for the free VOD stuff that had a price of $0.00. Directv does not use the do you want to buy X movie for X price on the free VOD stuff.
I can see a system where some get's used to clicking though buy screens with a price of $0 getting tipped up by a one the costs more then $0.
Why do you need the password for the free stuff?
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The real problem is after hundreds of years of trying to make a civilized world/society where you don't have to keep watching for predators all the time, you still get assholes who ruin things for everyone.
Not saying we should turn the world into a safe theme park but these people know exactly what they are doing - preying on the weak. Some may say who cares about the weak, but us humans have got where we are not by being the strongest badass creature in the world. Or even the smartest. Yes we're smart but
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I think its you that needs to grow up. The rest of use are sick of ... parents to[o] lazy to parent .......... teach you[r] children the consequences of [their actions], it's YOUR job.
Lazy? It does not sound as if you have ever been a parent. It is a 50-hours-a-day job on top of other things like maintaining the house, housework, the massive amount of paperwork connected with bills, school etc, and dealing with problems arising from grandparents - plus the small matter of neeeding to go to work for a living. Yet on top of all that you want parents to stand watching over their children's shoulders all their waking hours to make sure that they are not snagged in some way by some crook.
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I can't believe that more parents don't set up a limited balance bank card so that their kids can learn about budgeting etc.
Such accounts are very, very rare. Even the most basic debit card account at my local bank has an implicit overdraft 'just in case' I 'overspend'.
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Well, in my country you can set up accounts for your kids, and no bank in their sane mind would lend a minor any money (that also means no overdraft) without a written consent by the parent. Because kids are by default not sui juris (and that even stretches in this case up to the 18th birthday) which means that you can't ever collect money you lend them. They can just flip you off and turn away, and there's exactly zero you could do.
Of course, if the parent agrees to become liable for their overdraft, it's
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Kids are quite used to getting nothing material in return for their money. And the "so what if I spend today, I get money again" mentality is quite adult. That's what working for a wage is, essentially.
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I am a happy bunny, but have had major agro from O2 and T-M
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So if you're not a very good parent and neglect them and they get kidnapped, raped and killed that's totally the parent's fault. There's absolutely nobody else we could blame in this situation. These companies aren't there to play nice, they're there to rip you off for hundreds and thousands of dollars when you slip up and leave your kid with access to your credit card. They're like a hawk just waiting for the mother to look away so they can swoop in for the kill and you want to defend them. Sure, parents c
Re:Your kid, spending your money . . . (Score:5, Informative)
/shrug
You can look on it as government interference if you want, but in the UK people like the OFT: we look on their work as consumer protection.
The key word is 'Fair'. If a trade practice is 'unfair', the OFT are pretty effective at stopping it. If it really is just a case of your kid spending your money, then no, it's not the government's problem. But how will the OFT know if it's fair if they don't investigate?
I don't have any children, so I've no axe to grind, but I still think it's a good idea that they at least investigate the fairness of in-app purchases.
The OFT is one of the reasons that in the UK they have a variety of mobile phone providers with coverage everywhere, that they can move between with no penalty, and who will unlock our phones on demand. I don't think this is true of the US.
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Oops.
My national identity confusion (they/our) is because I'm British, but haven't lived in Britain since 2007.
Great OFT, but dreadful weather.
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One other thing I recall the OFT investigating is/was people who took free government provided online services, repackaged them in app form and then sold them to unwitting people who didn't realize the services were meant to be free. Which seems like something that should indeed be handled, although I'm not sure if it really violates any law or how one might write a law to stop it.
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Yeah, when read stuff like this, I always say, "If you don't like it, then move to the United States..."
Re:Your kid, spending your money . . . (Score:5, Insightful)
This isn't about kids spending money. It's about deceitful advertisements that trick people in buying stuff.
The average person might see through these tricks. But a huge population is dumber than the average person.
Re: (Score:3)
Bingo. Since the late 80s firms have routinely been slapped down for predatory practices when it comes to kids. TV is the most obvious example - toy commercials have been forcibly unbundled from their parent programs and standards have been imposed to prevent the Chocobot Hour [simpsonswiki.net] problem - but regulations have been put in place elsewhere for similar reasons. The US already has COPPA [wikipedia.org] for dealing with the
Re: (Score:2)
There is something in what you say. In the 80s, they actually had devices for kids. You could by a kids' cassette player/recorder, for example, which was lower fidelity than a "real" one, but had bigger buttons, was more robust, and cost less.
Today, they do make kids' MP3 players. My kids have them, and they're a pretty good deal. However, they don't make touchscreen app devices for kids, and the existing options are woefully inadequate (e.g. in Jelly Bean 4.2, you can't buy an app for the device, only for
Re: (Score:2)
It's about deceitful advertisements that trick people in buying stuff.
And what would those deceitful advertisements be?
It's fraud plain and simple... (Score:2)
. . . should not be the government's problem.
If your business plan relies on kids who don't understanding that they're being ripped off. Then that's some degree of fraud or illegal marketing.
It seems that there's this mindset, that if you have long legal agreement, it okay to sell people things they regret buying.
Newsflash: it's not okay. If you do a transaction well aware that the other party is doing a bad deal and that other party doesn't know or understand it, it called fraud.
Fraud is hard to prove, but that doesn't make it legal!!!
Re: (Score:2)
Saying it's free when it isn't is telling the truth?
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Your kid, spending your money . . . . . . should not be the government's problem.
Ah, parents these days . . . and their children . . . most of the time they're somebody else's problem.
Why should predatory business practices be allowed behavior by default and the burden of guarding against them be placed on the consumer? Should real-estate fraud be allowed and should the onus of guarding against it be placed on the consumer? It's kind of convenient to have a police force who sees to it that the occurrence of real-estate fraud is minimized, even hard core free market fanatics admit that much. So if we can do something to crack down on people who have turned exploiting the economic naivete
Re: (Score:2)
We call them children for a reason. Make it so parents can't afford to leave them alone with a computer for 5 minutes and parents won't let them have access to computers or game systems or phones at all. I don't know if that's a good thing or not but it's not how I would want to run my household.
Re:Let's blame everyone else (Score:4, Insightful)
I'd hazard a guess there are a fair few parents out there that don't quite understand apps, smart phones and the like. But in the case of UK law, I'd also imagine that there are instances where apps are misleading people to think play is free, but it isn't. If this is the case then they could be falling foul if UK law - a bit like calling something a beef burger when it is actually 75% Winnie-the-Pooh.
Re: (Score:2)
No conservation of responsibility (Score:2)
You do know that its possible for both parents and businesses to share responsibility for things like this?
You seem eager to heap responsibility and blame on parents, but hey, businesses should be able to pursue the mighty buck wherever it leads, without consequences. Sounds fair.
Parents should watch what their kids are doing, and not give in to pestering - but that doesn't make it right for supposedly reputable businesses to lurk in the bushes poised to spring out and take advantage as soon as a parent m
Re: (Score:2)
However, kids are marketed to in a pretty ruthless fashion, so I think teaching kids about how to budget money and not impulse buy all the time is very useful. Get them a pre-paid card and give them £5 a week to spend - they learn something and get to
Re: (Score:2)
As far as I know, in-app purchases require you to put in your password.
....and as has been repeatedly pointed out there have often been loopholes in this, such as systems that cache the password for 15 minutes, or systems that 'cry wolf' by asking for passwords for (e.g.) free apps and updates, so parents get complacent. Plus, your average kid may be smart enough to shoulder-surf when you enter your password, but still dumb enough to be fooled into spending money without realising.
Re: (Score:2)
There was a problem with ringtones a few years back: kids thought they were buying one ringtone for $2, they were actually agreeing to one a day for ever. The phone regulator was asked on national radio what he was doing about it, he said "Nothing. These people are crimina
Re: (Score:2)
I have a feeling that the world would be a nicer place if only those who could stay awake for 24 hours a day, seven days a week would have children.
Maybe it's just me being a misanthrope again...