rickmcd

As in any article or news item regarding parents, the childless think everything is so easy and simple and if parents were responsible, then this would not be a problem. I fell victim to this recently, and although Apple refunded the money immediately after I complained, I agree with the earlier poster who suggested that apps for children be required to always request a password for purchases.

My daughter was playing a Princess dress up game and saw an ad for Princess Pet Salon. I downloaded the free app and gave the iPhone back to her. In the Princess Pet Salon game, there is fake money that you earn for working on pets. The kids clicked on an icon that required you to have more rainbows than they had. The app asked if they would like to buy rainbows. The kids assumed this was with the fake money and bought some. Now, my ten year old did this a second time and got suspicious. They made their purchases within fifteen minutes of my download and each other, so it did not require the password again. 

They told me. I told Apple. The money was refunded. Nonetheless, the rainbows cost over $100 per purchase and the use of fake money in the app makes it very likely that young children will not understand. Finally, I never gave my password to my child like the parent haters suggest in these forums.This type of app is evil and should be banned. I doubt anyone wants there kid spending that type of cash on a kids app. Apple should begin to screen for this setup.