My 7 year old spent $550 in 15 minutes.

[To Be Quite Honest]

People, go to Canada Post and get a prepaid visa card. Use this card for all online purchases!

[DownhillGoat]

Originally Posted by Simon96Taco

I guess I'm old but.....7 year olds have phones!?!?

I dunno. I had a Gameboy when I was 7. Don't see the difference really.

[chemgear]

Why aren't you guys locking down the hell out of those ipads and iphones before you give them to your kids? It's the first thing I'd think to do and it's pretty easy.

[rubecube]

F it, I'm getting a vasectomy.

[La Flames Fan]

I taught my daughter to only press the "x" or "No" or "Cancel"

It has worked well! $0 in weird charges.

[Ozy_Flame]

I thought kids financially ruined people even without the free wheelin' online shopping blitzes ...

[btimbit]

Also learned the hard way before adding the password to purchase things. I was able to get it before it it got crazy, I got a few email receipts from Google Play so think it only cost me a few bucks before I figured out what was happening.

[guzzy]

My 6 year old did that last year. We gave the "FaceTime" password when we were in vegas in case he wanted t FaceTime with us. He was smart enough to learn that it wasn't just the FaceTime password. I was on the plane home when I realized there were two pages of apps that were partially loaded on my ipad. Checked my email and he spent $283. I called iTunes and they reversed all charges.

[fatso]

My 7 year old seems to have ordered a Brazzers account with my credit card. It wasn't me.

[HelloHockeyFans]

For iPhone at least, when you download a new App, a pop up will ask if you want to enable the password bypass for In-App purchases for the first 15 minutes, which you can obviously disable. Not sure how to do it after an App has already been downloaded though! I'm assuming password is always required after the app is ran the first time.

[MRCboicgy]

Originally Posted by fatso

My 7 year old seems to have ordered a Brazzers account with my credit card. It wasn't me.

Obviously this was your kid, because any adult knows where to get the free stuff.

I will say our cat once hopped on the keyboard with amazon one-click on and bought a book I was browsing. I own a travel guide for South America now.

[Derek Sutton]

Yah there are some simple ways to prevent these things, use an ITunes card, not your credit card, turn off the wifi or don't give them the password/ change the password, we all just get lazy and learn the hard way.

My brother has made it very clear to me that when his boys stay over they are not allowed unsupervised use of the Internet, and no Wifi on their devices. It seems many parents just want their kids to be quiet and leave them alone so they enjoy their own time with the wifi, that they don't care what they are up to. When I was a kid, if we were quiet it was usually a good indication some sort of mischief was happening.

[Bend it like Bourgeois]

We have the kids on family iTunes accounts for their devices. I have to approve every purchase. It's a bit of a pain, but let's us see what they are buying and keep spending in check. All the content is still shared.

[Swift]

Yeah, I guess I'm gonna be one of those guys and say that maybe some of you guys should be supervising your kids better.

My son (6) gets 2 hours of screen/game time once a week, every Saturday. He gets to choose whether to play on Lego.com or PBS Kids, or play one of his games on the Playstation. Occasionally, my wife gives in to him and lets him play Star Wars Angry Birds on her phone.

We used to let him watch Lego videos and train videos on youtube somewhat unsupervised, but it's easy to get from train videos to "Watch this train plow through this car at an intersection!!"

We're not Luddites. Obviously, kids of this generation are tech savvy. But when he's watching cool/dumb/funny videos on youtube, it's with me beside him.

EDIT: I should say, we learned the hard way years earlier when my then 10 year old stepdaughter was searching for Teen Titans pictures, and stumbled across some creep's drawings of cartoon characters ####ing each other.

[combustiblefuel]

Originally Posted by kunkstyle

I dunno. I had a Gameboy when I was 7. Don't see the difference really.

I never racked up any debt playing a gameboy. Thats kinda a big difference.

My game boy also couldnt text, make calls , order off Amazon watch youtube, download music or videos instantly and most disappointing of all it had no way to watch porn.

The only way a gameboy cost me money was when I physically had the money from weeks of allowance.


/ grumpyoldmanrant

[Northendzone]

this is a funny stroy because it did not happen to me.

historically, my wife and i have controlled the itunes password - i was annoyed with my wife when she told the kids (ages 9 & 12) the password; however, to date they have been responsible with it and ask before downloading anything.

[nfotiu]

Originally Posted by jar_e

This is obviously besides the point of the thread, but do you lose all the upgrades and in-app purchases in situations like this where Apple refunds you?

No you don't.

They have made the whole fifteen minute thing a lot more transparent over the years. It used to be default with no warning, I think it warns you now (assuming you have a device new enough to keep up with the upgrades).

in app purchases have zero tangible value or variable cost to the companies. It is easy to see why they go this route. Probably 20-30% of people call to complain when their kid takes advantage of it. Most people probably don't bother or don't notice if the kid spends 5-10$. It is pretty tricky for younger kids to understand the difference between real dollar purchases and purchases made with whatever the games currency is.

The itunes or play store gift card suggestion really is the best. Cuts out the whining too. When they understand they have a set amount of money to spend for whatever period, and I've found they are a lot more careful about what they use it for. You can buy the online cards instantly online too, so pretty convenient too.

[La Flames Fan]

Using 1Password works well too. Even if I had a gun to my head I wouldn't be able to remember my passwords they're that long and complicated...

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by Cameron Swift

My son (6) gets 2 hours of screen/game time once a week, every Saturday. He gets to choose whether to play on Lego.com or PBS Kids, or play one of his games on the Playstation. Occasionally, my wife gives in to him and lets him play Star Wars Angry Birds on her phone.

We used to let him watch Lego videos and train videos on youtube somewhat unsupervised, but it's easy to get from train videos to "Watch this train plow through this car at an intersection!!"

Yeah, when our kids are using the iPad, it's to do something specific and approved (playing Minecraft, watching Rainbow Loom videos, etc.), and we're close by. Our kids aren't allowed freestyle internet/youtube surfing, and they can't take the iPad into their bedrooms.

[Winnie]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

Yeah, when our kids are using the iPad, it's to do something specific and approved (playing Minecraft, watching Rainbow Loom videos, etc.), and we're close by. Our kids aren't allowed freestyle internet/youtube surfing, and they can't take the iPad into their bedrooms.

The problem is that many of these games are clearly designed to make it very, very easy to shell out more money. In many cases, I have a hard time figuring out whether a certain click is for something free or paid - so good luck with a young kid figuring it out. Like many folks have said, kids have racked up big charges in minutes. Even if they are having 2 hours of game time a week, this could (and does) happen very easily unless you're literally hovering over them the entire time. For me it's not really an issue about supervision (though I'm sure it is for some people), rather one about making sure to set all the proper restrictions.

At the same time, it was a great opportunity to teach my son about the internet/ITunes, etc. along with how the world is filled with people trying to separate you from your money.