According to a report by New York Post, an Apple user named Jessica Johnson of Wilton, Ct ended paying over $16,000 dollars unknowingly to Apple. Yes, you read it right, ‘Unknowingly’ because this payment was not done by her but her kid, George, who is only 6 years old.
As per the report, George purchased in-app features for the iPad version of Sega’s Sonic Forces. She notices that the amount was deducted from the period of July to now. And a total of $16,293.10 was spent on his account. That kid was continuously buying add-one on games to play games. As we all know most games encourage us to buy coins or other things in games as a add-ons features.
Although Johnson, initially thought that these transactions are nothing but fraud or a mistake, after filing a fraud claim with Chase, she was informed that these were indeed genuine. She was then asked to contact Apple for this.
After contacting Apple, she was given a list of all the charges, which is when she realized that it was her son. “It’s like my 6-year-old was doing lines of cocaine – and doing bigger and bigger hits,” Johnson said.
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Needless to say, Apple refused to refund her the amount as she didn’t claim it within 60 days of the charge. Johnson also admits that she did not take precautions to completely lock down the account. But she also says that she did not know about all the features.
The mother even accused the game of being “completely predatory” in encouraging young users to spend more. “What grownup would spend $100 on a chest of virtual gold coins?” she asked.
Nonetheless, Apple has been offering a number of Parent Control options for years to manage the iPhone and iPad given to the child. Some of the Parental Control options also include limiting purchases and accessing the apps. Similar controls are also there on macOS.
So, the next time you hand over your iPhone or iPad to your kid, you know what to do.
