It seems to be a recurring thing where children accidentally rack up thousands of dollars in in-app purchases for games they thought were free, leading to some very bill-shocked parents at the end of the month. Well the latest problem comes from a pair of twins in the UK where a 6-year old boy and girl managed to purchase about $1,600 worth of in-game items across two games, such as virtual pets and clothing accessories. According to their father, he knew that his kids knew his password and also knew about their in-app purchases, but he did not expect them to rack up such a huge bill in such a short amount of time, and called for tougher legislation for in-game purchases in the future.
The good news is that Apple has decided to refund him the money as a gesture of good will and he has since changed his password. According to Ashley Griffiths, the father of the children, “These games are aimed at children and the designers know exactly what’s going to happen […] Children don’t understand the value of money, they just see it as a way of collecting more pets and clothes for characters in the games. I mean, who in their right mind is going to pay £75 ($122) for a virtual pet?” Granted there should be better restrictions in place to prevent future incidents from happening, although changing his password from the start could have prevented all of this anyway.
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