[polldaddy poll=”4525402″]
Congressman Markey just wrote a letter to the FTC, asking them to investigate apps where “Smurfs and snowflakes and zoos (act) as online ATMs pulling money from the pockets of unsuspecting parents.”
So: whose responsibility is it?
Apple, who approves the games in the store and takes a 30% cut from the sales — at least those sales where parents don’t complain and get a refund?
Parents, who aren’t vigilant enough about disabling in-app purchases — and checking every time the tot gets their hands on an iDevice to play to make sure that it is, in fact, disabled?
Game devs who created a mechanism for that has been described as “credit card bait?”
Let us know why you think Apple should or should not allow these apps in the comments.
Nicole Martinelli is a San Francisco freelance writer who heads up Cult of Mac Magazine, our weekly publication available on iTunes. You can find her on Twitter and Google+. If you’re doing something new, cool and Apple-related, email her.
20 responses to “Poll: Should Apple Ban In-App Buys in Kiddy Games?”
Our Daugher just racked up a bill of $270–00 in half an hour from in app purchases un beknown to us. It is clear that such a large sum charged for these purchases has been cleverly designed for unsuspecting victims. When most games cost less than 5 dollars, how does a child on the same game purchases $270 worth of gems in such a short period of time? This is such a violation clearly designed to hit unsuspecting victims as hard as possible in as short a space as possible. It’s not nothing to do with a clear enjoyment for a realistic charge from kids wanting to play games. It’s absolute opportunistic robbery and these people should be charged as fraudulant con artists!