... to expect Apple to refund money spent by a child on in-app purchases?

[Pleb1969]

OK, not me, but a neighbour and close friend of mine had this happen to her. She let her 9 year old DD play on the Ipad on some app called Tiny Zoo or something. DD knew daddy's password and managed to empty his bank acount of £600 in 5 minutes by purchasing fairies and unicorns for this virtual zoo. Dont think she realised she was blowing actual money - the holiday money they had been saving up... Apple/Itunes will not refund it, saying they received goods and didnt breach their T&C's. Friend posts on that finance blokes (Martin Lewis) twitter account and gets blasted for being a bad parent!! Bit harsh dont you think?

Not really tbh. Tiny Zoo is really expensive but we don't let the dc have our password for the ipad! It's just like letting a teen run up huge mobile ohone bills then complaining about it... if you're letting kids play on adult toys then you need to monitor their use/not let them have passwords etc until they can be trusted. A 9yo IMO should know that Tiny Zoo is real money, anyway.

Ouch though, for your friends :(

It's a tricky thing - normally, you have to enter the apple password to buy anything in-app - but for the first fifteen minutes after you download a new app, by default, this isn't the case.

You can change the setting though!

If purchases are protected by a password, then personally, I don't think apple are doing anything wrong by refusing to refund. They should refund out of moral decency, but I don't think they should have to. It was your friends mistake for allowing the child to have the password.

My friend's son did this and Apple refunded them.

you can turn in app purchases off on your iPad, which you should do if your child plays on it if you have half an ounce of sense. I'm torn, I think aplenty are right morally, if you have a contract that states you are liable for what it bounty on your iPad (and they do, it's in the t's n C's) and you fail to safeguard it before giving it to someone that's your lookout. BUT £600 is a LOT of money and if I owned a co and this happened I'd refund as a goodwill gesture. your friends issue will be that Apple are too bog a co to give a flying f*!

The first time, you get a refund. 100%. It's the policy.

After that, Apple expect you to have set up the account correctly, including either disabling in-app purchases or making sure the password is very secure.

If their child has done this before, they are unlikely to get anywhere with Apple.

I think your friend is going to have to take the hit for this one. It was password protected and her DD knew it, its no-one elses fault but the parents tbh.

Your friends should have disabled the in-app purchase option before letting a 9yo loose on an iPad.

there have been enough tales about children running up big bills on in-app purchases so they should have known better.

you also have the ability to turn auto correct off on your iPad, which I should have done before writing that reply. Ugh.

Legally, Apple don't have to refund. It's the purchaser's duty to keep their password safe. If it wasn't a child then the person who downloaded the stuff could be prosecuted for theft and fraud and the money could potentially be recovered from them but obviously that doesn't apply here... Pain in the arse, though - 600 quid!!

Why does the child know the password?

If you let your child play on your device then you ensure they don't know the password. This is common sense and ouch for your friends but I agree with Apple. YABU

My ds did this on fb. Spent £50 on a stupid game, whrn I contacted them they asked for pictures of bank statements (without account numbers) and they refunded the money within days.

Wow £600 in 5 minutes!
How do I set up one of these sites?

Stupid parent.
Does the child know his pin number as well?

Friend's dd did this, apple refunded it. Maybe the circumstances are different in this case?

Sorry was their fault, my 7 year old knows the rules about in app purchases and I have shown him very clearly how to tell which is a "real" shop and which is just part of the game. Plus he doesn't know the password. A nine year should know enough to check if they are spending real money

I remember when this happened I asked my 3DS (aged 8, 10 and 13 then) if they knew my password (which the eldest one did at the time) would they buy anything in a game and they all said 'NO! You'd kill us!... Yep, got that straight boys...!

My son did this last year. He was playing on a game called Tiny Monsters. I sometimes allowed him to buy a bucket of coins at 69p and always hid my apple password in doing so. HOWEVER... One day he experimented by entering my laptop password, which was the same. (I know, I know) and he was in, buying premium buckets of coins for £69.99 a go. He rung up a bill if nearly £700 in space of ten minutes and the first I knew about it was when I received email receipts the next day. After a few emails with Apple they agreed to refund in full. I have to say, they were very decent about it but did stress that they were within their rights to not refund etc. My son is now closely monitored on the iPad & games where you have to buy coins are banned. How can a kids' game justify selling buckets of coins for £70 a go!? Total open for abuse.

YABU.

I have Tiny Zoo and playit with my LO. It's not rocket science to lock your account down within the settings, restricting the in app purchases with a pin number after which you then also need the password. Which incidentally, if your 9year old knows should really be changed to a different one,preferably with numbers, lower and uppercase etc to make it hard to replicate. There have been at least 10cases of this occurring in the national newspapers so that your neighbour should have had some warning of this.

My Comp Security DH has just looked over my shoulder and said if you don't understand the technology, why have it? Harsh - but he see's it as being similar to driving a car. You wouldn't get behind the wheel of a car without lessons, so why not take the 5minutes to go through the tutorial on how to lock down your iPad to avoid this? I do sympathise with their losing their holiday money, and the poor 9year old must be so upset and beside herself - actually it's the 9year old I'm more upset for really as she's going to feel that she's ruined the summer for the entire family poor thing. But Apple are within their legalrights - morally though, they should take it by case by case. A tender accidentally on a game is one thing. The summer holiday savings is another

Sorry but it is the parents fault.

Also the 9yr old must surely take some blame here?

I do think it's really bad that games aimed at kids sell such expensive stuff. What adult in their right mind is going to spend £70 on a bucket of coins??

And also the way that the default on Apple ipods/ipads is that the password remains 'live' for 15 mins after you enter it. A lot of people don't realise that

Not a shred of sympathy. Parents should not allow their kids to play on their phones, it is not difficult to put a passcode on a phone and NOT tell your child what it is.

DD did this inadvertently and I went to the bank who refunded the charges - got nowhere with Apple...

How would they know it wasn't an adult buying the credits? just saying

You can actually stop in app purchases with a passcode (in addition to your iTunes password)

You can see how here turn off purchases

Lots of people have had their money returned - maybe they handled it badly?