As If Parents Don't Have Enough Worries

The other day with a mixture of pride and concern a young father was telling his friends his three year old had learned how to buy games on mom’s iPad. Evidently, mom does not lock her credit card number with a password.

Then this morning I read an article by Quentin Fottrell entitled Things Apple Won’t Tell You.

Recently an eight year old from Rockville, MD ran up a $1,400 bill on mom’s iPad playing Smurf’s Village, an app touted by Apple as a “freeemium.” The game is free up to a certain point then Beeline, the company that makes the game, charges for the Smurfberries necessary unlock imprisoned Smurfs or to build your own Smurf Village.

The online description of this game does mention the possibility of charges, but evidently 8 year old children and very few of their parents ever bother reading the fine print. Guess we know why these games are given away for free. This story did have a happy ending. Mom was given a one time reimbursement. Beeline notes iPad users can adjust their settings to block in-app purchases and request a refund if they buy an app by accident. However, when a customer enters the Apple App Store they are warned all sales are final. If you buy a bad app the chances of getting your money back are pretty small.