“A new class-action lawsuit takes issue with free iPhone games that feature in-app purchases, alleging that Apple’s App Store makes it easy for children to rack up credit card charges without realizing they are spending real-world money,” Neil Hughes reports for AppleInsider.
“Garen Meguerian of Phoenixville, Penn., filed the suit this week on behalf of himself and other parents and guardians who he believes incurred unauthorized charges for game-related content,” Hughes reports. “Those transactions came from children playing games on iOS devices like the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, and making in-app transactions to purchase virtual goods.”
Hughes reports, “The lawsuit notes that Apple has since addressed the issue by requiring a password for in-app purchases. Previously, once users entered their password to download an application, iOS offered a 15-minute window during which additional purchases could be made without entering the password. But Meguerian believes that Apple’s previous policy allowed the company to ‘pocket millions of dollars’ from unauthorized transactions. And even the revised password policy found in iOS 4.3 isn’t enough, he argued.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Judge Bork” for the heads up.]
Okay, I’m not a lawyer, but just what exactly is the civil right being abused here? Is this as frivolous and immaterial and irrelevant and incompetent as it seems to me?
More importantly, what is with American society, American Dream, American beliefs?
Why there are 20x more lawyers per citizen in USA comparing to Japan, for example?
When thing went wrong?
What a dick.
Judge should lock this guy up for wasting time.
Solution: stop being an idiot and police your kids’ devices. Don’t give them free access to your money (iTunes store account). And for fsck’s sake, turn off in-app purchases!
I swear! Idiots like these screw everything up for the rest of us…
Apple isn’t your babysitter. Try raising your kids instead.
Where’s the necessity to give your kid an iPhone btw? Give them a crap phone that makes calls to just YOU and emergency numbers.. that’s all your kids need. When your children are on their own, they can buy that iPhone and incur charges and take responsibility for it.
If you want to give your children an iPod touch or iPad, learn how to use the parental controls. I’m sure an Apple Store can help you out with this matter.
Raise your own kids because no one wants to do it for ya. You popped these ignorant kids out so they’re your responsibility.
Once again parents of retarded children cannot ever take responsibility for their own stupidity and blame Apple. Yes, the Evil Apple did all that on purpose. While Steve was laid up sick with Cancer, his satanic visions were to create these hell-bent tools and put them in the hands of kids to destroy the parents financially, racking in billion$ for hiself and his Dominion! Good f’n grief. Hey stupid parents who buy kids things ( things that kids dont exactly “need”… wake up and watch your kids. Your kid take a lighter or matches and burn someones house down?? Well, thats not poor parenting, thats the fult of matchmakers and store that sell the lighters, no one else! ( say that 10 times and not only will you believe it, it will come true)
Why would the children be retarded?
Best line ever. Thanks!
Yep, It’s ALWAYS somebody else’s fault.
Yeah, blame Apple for your inability to police your own kids. And try to make them pay you for your lack of attention.
Isn’t this why Apple puts parental controls on Macs and iOS?
This is so stupid. Who sets their kid’s account up with a credit card payment method!?! Setup their account using the credit card = none option and then use the allowance option to give them the money they need to buy iTunes related stuff – Music, Apps, In-App-Purchaces, etc.
There is NO iParent App…
This is NOT an Apple problem. its an idiot parent problem.
Turn off in app purchases, dont give your child the itunes password.
simple.
oh wait, you would rather not be a parent and have Apple, TV, Game console, school etc be the “parent” you should be and never have to take any responsibility yourself.
If i racked up charges with 900 numbers or charged stuff on my parents CC as a kid… i’d know not to do that again.
Last year i gave my old iPod touch to my niece after her iPod classic broke. she uses my Sister’s iTunes account, she knows the password. EVERY time she wants to install an app, even free…. she gets permission to use the password.
they have netflix, she ASKED to install the netflix app so she could watch netflix on the iPod. She called my sister, and explained to her why she wanted the netflix app. I was impressed that she had the password… but felt she should explain why she wanted to use the password for a free app.
she’s beyond responsible, cause my sister is an actual parent…
iParent App, that’s the ticket. Sold with a $50 parent zapper wrist band (batteries included). Every time an in App purchase is made, the iOS device sends a signal to the wrist band and the parent gets zapped for not turning off in App purchases. Extra batteries can be ordered for teenaged parents.
🙂
Loads of bollocks! 1st of all, one can deactivate in-app purchases, next would be to get a friggin prepaid card for your kids and third is to grow up and get a fscking life! YOU are responsible for YOUR kids, NOT Apple NOT the government or anyone else but YOU!
I love how people like to point fingers and start lawsuits for something they have the sole responsibility of!
This exact thing happened to me. I emailed iTunes help and they refunded all the charges to my account no questions asked. So where is the problem? If anything go after the shady developers that release free kids games with non-obvious in app purchases upwards of $100! And Apple should ban any developer that attempts in app trickery.
The developers aren’t shady. The parent is stupid! Why did he give them access to an iTunes account tied to his credit card? Because the problem is the lack of parenting skills on the dads part!
I’ll take this more seriously when the supposed plaintiffs here are pressing criminal charges against their own children. You know, the ones that actually perpetrated whatever fraud there might be here.
Two words: Parental responsibility
Also, Apple doesn’t take a cut of in-app purchases, so how have they “pocketed millions of dollars”?
Apple takes the same 30% on in-app purchases that they get elsewhere.
It’s obvious to me that most of you who are posting are not parents. My kids, as well as all of my friends kids, are constantly grabbing their parents phones and playing games on them. In app purchases is on by default, so if you don’t investigate to learn how to shut it off, there could be issues. My kid bought a bunch of ‘fishbucks’ through tapfish, apparently during one of those 15-minute windows after installing a separate app. When I contacted Apple, there response was tough, the purchase was made on your phone, you are responsible.
It’s very easy to say the parent should parent and be more careful, but I can see both sides. Is it really Apple’s fault? No way. Should Apple have taken more steps to make this less likely to happen, probably. Not sure it’s grounds for a lawsuit though.
It’s obvious to me that you’re one of those parents who needs to keep better tabs on their children and/or who should’ve had to take a test to get a license to breed.
Ever heard of PASSCODE LOCK? Set it to “immediate”. Don’t give your little shit the password. Problem solved.
Why is the child a “little shit”?
Why is the Haters so uncivil? He needs a xanax app or something.
I’m a parent. When I get a receipt for something my kids erroneously ordered, I click the link and dispute the charge. Pretty darned easy.
Well, I don’t know much about the games and the alleged unexpectedly high bills. However, I do believe Apple should revisit the in-app purchase protocol.
For example, I subscribed the The Daily and I have not yet figured how to unsubscribe from it. And heaven knows I’d like to.
I’d like to echo what others are saying. Parent and teach your own children or take all necessary precautions to ensure that you never have any.
My kids (ages 5, 8, and 9) use my iPhone to play games occasionally. When I do allow them to, I know what they are playing and for how long. They do not have access to my password and I don’t have any games installed that would be of interest to the kids that would require or ask for in-app purchases. They play Angry Birds, Plants vs. Zombies, Super Monkey Ball, Fruit Ninja, Doodle Jump, etc. I know where my kids are and they have a cell phone only to call me, my wife, or grandparents in case of an emergency. All data services (including texting) have been disabled.
With this lawsuit I say for Apple to claim no wrong doing and to award all those in the lawsuit a free in-app purchase of their choice. 🙂
Good idea, but I’d award them the eBook of their choice from Parenting-Magic instead of an in-app purchase credit.
😆
Did all of you who berated this parent READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE? It would appear to me that parental permission was sought and given to download FREE games but that after the free download was completed, additional offers – or should I say temptations – were apparently offered to “boost” the free game and make it perform better – no additional password was required. Apple banked on the idea that the parent would give the password for a FREE game and then enticed the child with downloads that cost real money. What kid wouldn’t say okay to that and not realize that these offers translated into dollars? Apple knew exactly what it was doing – that’s what they pay their marketing and advertising agency for – and marketers know that kids can’t say no to bigger, better, faster fun…. especially when they thought it was FREE. Clearly a lesson that there’s no free lunch.
have you ever purchased something in game? they ALL have the same “are you sure?” popup that says the amount.
the problem the guy has.. is he isn’t smart enough to turn the in app purchases off.
turn them off, problem solved. oh wait… that would mean take responsibility.
Well, FTB, you’re assuming that downloads were commonplace in this household and you don’t know – and neither do I – that to be the case but inasmuch as Apple has now CHANGED THEIR POLICY when marketing these specific add-ons to children, I’d venture to say you’re wrong. Seems the new catch-phrase is “blame the parents” but without the added insight into this specific family’s dynamic, isn’t that as much as trap as was Apple’s free downloads to children?
PARENTS: DO YOUR JOB! It’s called ‘personal responsibility.’ Apple is NOT your kid’s nanny! And yet, Apple provide child Parental Controls! Why aren’t you using them?
HINT: Don’t give your password to your iTunes account to your kids!
Massive DUH Factor!
This case should be thrown out of court as frivolous and idiotic. Personal responsibility means you DIY!
You’re another one who doesn’t “get it.” Kid says to parent: may I download this FREE game? Parent agrees and ENTERS the password – DOESN’T give it to the child. How was the parent to know that Apple would, after the FREE DOWNLOAD, offer pay-for downloads a child couldn’t resist and why, if Apple was in the right, did they CHANGE THEIR POLICY? The comments about this article remind me of the test in school where they tell students to read the entire test FIRST and the last question advises not to complete any portion of the test…. my guess is that most of you would have failed by the way you have slammed this parent and jumped to the conclusion that he wasn’t watching his child. The article clearly outlines the situation… then again, perhaps none of you scored well on reading comprehension, either…
In reply, let me quote from the User Guide for iOS 4.2.1, page 156, the Downloading Apps section:
“Some apps allow you to make purchases within the app. You can restrict in-app purchases in Settings. See “Restrictions” on page 166.”
Page 166:
“Turn on restrictions:
1 Choose General > Restrictions, then tap Enable Restrictions.
2 Enter a four-digit passcode.
3 Reenter the passcode.
. . .
Restrict purchases within apps: Turn off In-App Purchases.”
IOW: Apple had ALREADY provided parents with the tool they needed to restrict in-app purchases.
Therefore, if parents didn’t use the tool, that was their choice. If they didn’t know about the tool, then they didn’t RTFM! If they didn’t RTFM that’s THEIR problem, NOT Apple’s. Therefore, I stand correct.
Throw the case out of court!
So what did Apple do in iOS v4.3? Apple added ANOTHER (second) tool to restrict purchases within apps: The removal of the 15 minute window for in-app purchases. WHY? Because many parents had not bothered to RTFM, such as the NEGLIGENT PARENTS who created this frivolous lawsuit. Apparently these parents had not “scored well on reading comprehension”. 😎
Look the bottom line is that the parent is responsible period! Case in point my son and nephew decided to take one of my credit cards and racked up some $1,650 in charges. Of course I didn’t know it was them, the credit card issuer got digital photos of them making the transaction at the store. Any guess who wound up paying the “disputed charges”? Me, or I could have pressed legal charges against them for theft. Simply put, be a parent and take the parental responsibility you signed up for when you became a parent or legal guardian!