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Apple’s agreement to
settle a class-action suit regarding in-app purchases and
patronage by kids will bring sighs of relief to many parents.
As the parent
of two children (one is six and fully capable of wreaking digital havoc; the
two-year-old is still fairly harmless), I can sympathize with the plaintiffs:
Their argument is that certain kid-friendly apps had in-app purchases available
that the parents didn’t know about. Nobody thought twice about letting little
Timmy or Trisha play with Funwords Deluxe (an app I just made up, but you know
what I mean). Little did they know that after they downloaded it for $1.99 and
left kids alone with it, the game would offer options to open new levels for
99¢ a pop. Just click here and payment will be automatically sent to the credit
card on file with iTunes. So easy!
Apple (AAPL) will refund money to those families
whose finances were rattled by excessive in-app purchasing. Kind of reminds me
of when kids would call 1-900 numbers and rack up exorbitant charges on the
family phone bill because of all the “entertainment services” they were
calling.
So I’ve been
told.
All parents can
take steps to avoid such a fate: If you have an iPhone or iPad, go into
Settings, then into General, then Restrictions. Enable restrictions (you’ll
have to create a PIN so Timmy can’t undo your handiwork) and then turn off
In-App Purchases under the Allowed Content heading. You can also adjust
further parameters, such as whether your kids can have access to iTunes, the
camera, or the Safari Web browser.
Then you can
let Timmy or Trisha tap away to their hearts’ content as you relax in the
knowledge that your wallet isn’t dangling from one of the levels they can
unlock.
Sign up before Midnight to watch our video,
“Biggest Ponzi Scheme in U.S. History to Crash,”
and get our daily e-letter Investment Contrarians.
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That’s a promise! And you can opt out at any time.