If you’re a parent, it’s a familiar situation.
You’re on a long trip or perhaps in a busy restaurant.
You need to hang around but the kids are getting a bit grizzly and you’re running out of options.
The coloring books are full, the toys played out, and “Where’s Wally” has been spotted and marked with the accuracy of a paparazzi on the trail of Justin Bieber.
So as opposed to engaging our little children in yet another stimulating and attentive manner we reach for the TV dinner of childcare, the convenient yet lazy option, and pass over the iPAD.
“Here you go, find some games” we mutter before letting their busy silence envelope us as we get on with our meal or trip.
But like calorie laden TV dinners, there is a hidden cost, that might not be obvious for a good few weeks.
Last week one parent in the UK was landed with a $2500 bill when his five year old son decided he didn’t want to grind out the achievements anymore but would progress by buying his “power ups”.
At a $100 a time these were not cheap and it wasn’t until their credit card company called to check they really wanted to spend over two and a half thousand dollars on in-app purchases that they realised what was going on.
Unsurprisingly, this had the British press whipped up in frenzy of protestation, after all, how can a child run up a bill for thousands of dollars when they don’t have a credit card or a bank account?
The answer, as any of us know, is extremely easily.
If the child knows the App Store password or, if the purchases are completed within fifteen minutes of it last being entered (as happened in this case), then these transactions are almost frictionless.
So where does that leave our industry? Is this the fault of lazy parents who can’t be bothered to parent properly or avarice on behalf of developers who can now access nine figure revenues with the stroke of a finger-tip?
Interestingly, in this case, Apple have stepped in and issued a refund but this actually raises even more issues.
Does this mean that every time someone fancies a freebie they simply have to point the finger at an unauthorised child filled and watch the money flow back into their account?
It’s a complex and emotive issue but as an industry we have to be very careful how we handle it.
Governments, consumer associations, and parenting groups will be studying any self-regulation proposals in great detail and if we don’t do enough to protect youngsters from inadvertent purchases they’ll do it for us, and probably break the entire IAP business model at the same time.
