Paula Marner is a Canadian mom whose two 7-year-old twins racked up an mipressive iTunes bill to the tune about $3,000. She shared her story with CBCNews in an effort to keep this from happening to other parents. Now you might think the twins charged up that much money because Marner was careless, but in reality it's not all that hard to do and Marner is not the only parent who has gone through this.
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Marner gave the twins, Elias and Malachy, permission to download the free "Clash of Clans" app and let them play it on the family's iPod and iPad. Little did she know that the app requires in-app purchases for the extra features, whose costs range from 99 cents to $99! The boys typed in a password when prompted and then just tapped away to make the purchases because all it takes to make a tap purchase is a tap. Note to self: Do not give kids your password.
I think this is some kind of B.S. that totally preys on kids and busy parents. You know the apps that do this are designed to get those accidental purchases. Ugh! And sure someone like Marner who gets such a huge bill will investigate, but what about the parents that don't notice the charges if they are smaller or just don't have the time to deal with disputing a $20 charge? It's a shady marketing practice, if you ask me.
Marner is not the only one to go through such an expensive in-app purchase ordeal as evidenced by the $100-million US class-action lawsuit over in-app practices that Apple is in the process of settling.
So how do you protect yourself from in-app purchases? Change the settings on your phone. You can disable in-app purchases on an iPhone by going to "Settings", then "General", then "Restrictions", then "Enable Restrictions ", then "Set Passcode", then slide "In-App Purchases" to "off." If you have a different type of phone check with the manufacturer or your carrier on how to restrict in-app purchases.
Oh, and Paula Marner fought the charges and is getting her $3,000 back. Go Paula! And thanks for sharing your story. Excuse me while I go change the settings on my phone.
Image via CBCNews
