A dad whose daughter ran up his credit card while playing the Smurfs’ Village app has launched a Facebook group to convince Apple to ban in-app purchases in kids games.
The fledgling group – as of this writing, it has 20 members – started after Tobias Feldt’s daughter bought a load of Smurf extras by accident.
Feldt says Apple refunded the purchase immediately, with no questions asked – as it often does in these cases – but he decided the incident shouldn’t end there.
Feldt has tried to teach his two children to play games responsibly. His oldest daughter, age nine, was “devastated” when she found out that she had run up a bill playing the game.
“Since then she has been afraid to download games and in my opinion the curiosity which I tend to encourage has been killed,” he told Cult of Mac.
Much to the annoyance of parents who have to pay the credit card bills, in-app iPhone and iPad buys are popular with kids.
A typical scenario: your tot is playing with a game like “The Smurfs’ Village.” It’s free to download will keep the kid busy building a village where they can play with the famous blue cartoon characters.
The problem? To complete the Smurf village, your kid might want to add an extra, say, a wheelbarrow of Smurfberries.
That in-app purchase comes with a price tag of $59.99. Other extras are slightly cheaper – a bucket of Smurfberries costs $4.99, two bushels go for $11.99.
After a rash of parent protests, game makers Capcom some warnings in December. The first sentence of the game description now reads:
“Smurf Village is free to play, but charges real money for additional in-app content. You may lock out the ability to purchase in-app content by adjusting your device’s settings.”
Feldt’s recently-launched group hopes to attract the attention of Apple to ban games that target kids to buy things.
“We prefer to be able to feel safe and secure when dealing with the Apple App Store,’” Feldt wrote in the Facebook group page.
“This includes being sure that Apple ensures that apps aiming at deliberate deception of users and credit card bait are banned.
It is ok that App developers make money, but it should be done with the full consent and accept of the buyer. If an app is developed for kids as users, this includes ensuring no deception of kids!”
The best defense against unwanted credit card purchases remains to disable in-app purchases. Check out our quick guide here.
