UK Boy Leaves Family With £2000 iTunes Bill

[spookyman]

In my day the child would been put over a knee and spanked for doing something like that.

 

[f-14]

apple created this exploit for their profit fully well knowing this would happen with their software, any one who thinks otherwise is unintelligent.

think about credit card rules at a store, why you have to swipe your card every time you make a purchase or refund. laws in a great many countries were put in place by fraud like this where they made it mandatory verification be done for every transaction.

there is even a law in america where every one has the right within 72 hours after any kind of contract, agreement, purchase they have the right to cancel it for any reason and children under the age of 16 can not lawfully be held to any purchase over $500 with out express written permission by a parent or guardian.

apple knows about these laws and is purposely circumventing them which is illegal and places apple in great liability no matter what their contract states they are not allowed to break the law.

 

[infernocy]

UK Boy - stopped reading there --

in the uk , they have the worst education on the planet , its unusual for this not to happen

 

[bllue]

[citation][nom]infernocy[/nom]UK Boy - stopped reading there -- in the uk , they have the worst education on the planet , its unusual for this not to happen[/citation]
To be fair this happens in the US too. A few months ago a story was posted about a US kid and the huge Xbox Live bill he racked

 

[tivatar]

[citation][nom]spookyman[/nom]In my day the child would been put over a knee and spanked for doing something like that.[/citation]

I think you get the chair for that stuff nowadays... or at least have the child removed by protective services.

I'm getting plenty old and still scared to bring a child into this world knowing where it's headed. Maybe one day a move to Iceland will be in order.

 

[Hspito]

It's amazing the amount of ignorant comments in this posting. I have notice that most of TH readers don't like apple. I have multiple apple devices and i like apple, i alway thought that we just had different taste but i just realize the majority of you don't know anything about apple...so For those that have never or that haven't use iTunes in a while:

1. You need to type your iTunes password to make any in app purchase.
2. You can disable in-app purchases from the iOS setting.
3. After you type the iTunes password the account stay open without the need of typing again for a time where you can keep downloading stuff(preset to 15 minutes and you can change it in the settings) after the time you need to type the password again.
4. When you tap on an in-app purchase there is a window that pops up asking you for confirmation by typing the iTunes password.
5. In app purchase is the way a free app makes money.

In this case either the kid knew the password or the parents typed it for him without reading the box, in either case I blame the parents, not the kid, not the developer and neither Apple have the fault. I know this posting might get me a lot of thumbs down but. Apple policies are not opinion they are facts.

 

[tanjo]

[citation][nom]one-shot[/nom]Here is a suggestion. "Will's mother said he was sad because he was not able to reach level 26 and fight the Dark Monster due to the bill he incurred."[/citation]
More like, "he was sad when he was told he couldn't play the game anymore as he was about to reach level 26 and fight the Dark Monster." That sounds to me that he didn't feel any remorse.


@Hospito
1. Probably done by the grandparents
2. Majority of people doesn't know this. (Who to blame...?)
3. Enough time to spend £2000
4. Buy
5. and/or Ads

The kid probably got spanked behind the scenes.

 

[livebriand]

[citation][nom]edogawa[/nom]Who gives a young kid an expensive device with a credit card synced, that's just asking for trouble. If I had a kid I wouldn't risk 600$ when they could drop and break it so easily or mishandle it. Kids should not have phones or tablets till their mid-teens; childhood should be something you're spending time outside and using their imaginations, not becoming mindless zombies at that age texting and playing terrible games with touch controls.I feel bad for today's kids though, they start off with junky games on their phones and tablets when they are young; they will never experience the joy of playing on an Atari, Nintendo, old dos games, etc.[/citation]
As a teen, I have to agree with you. I think that middle school kids should have a cheap, prepaid phone just in case though (particularly if they stay after school for activities), with texting blocked (or restricted) - a smartphone is stupid at that point.

 

[livebriand]

OK, since the forum software wants to fight with me, I'll post this again:
[citation][nom]edogawa[/nom]Who gives a young kid an expensive device with a credit card synced, that's just asking for trouble. If I had a kid I wouldn't risk 600$ when they could drop and break it so easily or mishandle it. Kids should not have phones or tablets till their mid-teens; childhood should be something you're spending time outside and using their imaginations, not becoming mindless zombies at that age texting and playing terrible games with touch controls.I feel bad for today's kids though, they start off with junky games on their phones and tablets when they are young; they will never experience the joy of playing on an Atari, Nintendo, old dos games, etc.[/citation]
As a teen, I have to agree with you. I think that middle school kids should have a cheap, prepaid phone just in case though (particularly if they stay after school for activities), with texting blocked (or restricted) - a smartphone is stupid at that point.

 

[livebriand]

[citation][nom]edogawa[/nom]Who gives a young kid an expensive device with a credit card synced, that's just asking for trouble. If I had a kid I wouldn't risk 600$ when they could drop and break it so easily or mishandle it. Kids should not have phones or tablets till their mid-teens; childhood should be something you're spending time outside and using their imaginations, not becoming mindless zombies at that age texting and playing terrible games with touch controls.I feel bad for today's kids though, they start off with junky games on their phones and tablets when they are young; they will never experience the joy of playing on an Atari, Nintendo, old dos games, etc.[/citation]
As a teen, I have to agree with you. I think that middle school kids should have a cheap, prepaid phone just in case though (particularly if they stay after school for activities), with texting blocked (or restricted) - a smartphone is stupid at that point.

 

[livebriand]

So only now, after I posted this 4 times (this post was one of those until this edit), did it finally show up...

 

[Guest]

The same thing happened to me last year...my 8 year old son was doing add-ons for a game and I noticed when I saw like $600 missing from my checking/debit card account. The IPOD was restricted for purchases, but not the setting for "in app purchases". The Apple rep I spoke with graciously gave me every damn dime back and I blocked in-app. My son did feel terrible that I had been charged, he thought they were your typical free pushes available through the app store. He can also read enough to have noticed if the app had a banner that said "YOU WILL BE CHARGED FOR THIS UPGRADE", which it DID NOT!!? Shame on Apple and their sneaky methods here...clearly the rep thought so as well since he commiserated with our situation--he said we were'nt the first this happened to by far....

 

[Guest]

Also, you should know I did get the game on the family IPOD for him...he did not own it, he earned a game and he did not LIVE on the IPOD. He has interests outside the house, plays sports and is outside with friends. Don't judge...you sound bitter.