Inadvertent $1500 in app purchase Tap Zoo - warning!

Judging from the severity of the complaints and the lack of support from "level 4" career posters; I believe the cathartic affect is probably immeasurable.

Should we be watching our kids use of internet devises? Yes. Do some people abandon their children to electronic devices? Yes. Did the people complaining about this app not truly understand the underlying implications of its use? Yes. Are most of these people guilty of ignoring their kids while they play with these devices? Doubtful. If most were like me -they entered their password for a 0.99 cent purchase - not $99.99 for virtual coins used to populate a virtual world enjoyed by the innocence of a young child. And, probably looked over the child's shoulder to examine what the child was actually doing. I can not agree with the "blame is on you" argument.

I'm all for companies developing and providing products and services to the consumer, but price gouging is another topic completely. We all have a responsibility that includes the purveyor to provide goods and services at a "Real" value commensurate with the target market. offering 100$ fees inside a app designed for children is insidious at best. Allowing them to be accessed as "In-app" purchases when an adult is not looking over their shoulder is disgusting.

I'm sure Tamara, Julian, and the rest of the DG people offering solutions for people in search of help are honorable and wonderful folks, and have done commendable work for the masses. But, I think they are off the mark on this issue. Ohh... yes I did the arithatic, too.

Wow, one day and you are an expert on who is contributing here and people complaining. Just think about how brilliant you will be by tomorrow. And I doubt there are many who found your post of value.

While maybe not in as harsh terms, I have to agree with Tamara and Julian about this issue. I've let children play games with my iPhone and iPad, but I play with them and monitor what they are doing. And I disable in-app purchases before they use it. Just like parental restrictions on cable boxes, etc if you don't set them up they are not much use. And as far as including in-app purchase, setting prices, that is between the vendor and the user. Who am I to dictate what they charge? I just don't download ones that I think are exorbitant and I review them first.

All we're saying is take some personal responsibility. And if you feel you've been wronged contact the iTunes Store as has been pointed out here.

I'm assuming you meant you did the arithmetic. Or math for short. Since you did you'll know that if you respond to this you will have passed Julian's daily average. And have 2/3 of Tamara's. So keep going, I know you can do it.

I never understand why parents who are legally responsible for their children's wellbeing don't review what they are giving their kids before handing it to them. Apple makes each developer post a warning if the app allows in store purchase and that you can disable the feature in the iPhone settings menu. While I think it's insane to charge $19.99 for a child to purchase digital animals in a SIM game I also realize as an adult I can easily disable this purchase option in the child's iPhone before handing it to them. I would recommend for any parent giving an iPhone or iPod Touch to a child to ensure to use an iTunes gift card for the child account instead of adding your credit card.

To all those parents complaining about the charges they supposedly didn't know about them.

Then you claim you watched your child play the games?

1) Hmmm how is it you missed seeing the charges and your child click on buy? Strange you would miss the obvious. Whats wrong with this picture?

2) Was your child really under your supervision when playing the games? If so then how do you answer question number 1?

3) How can you make these pieces fit together?

Who's responsible for their child AT ALL TIMES until they are 18 years old?
Who's responsible to research what their child is doing before letting them have/do something they want, especially when a credit card is involved?

THE PARENT/GUARDIAN!!!

Please watch your child under the age of 18 years at all times and know what they are doing at all times. Love your child, accept your child, and be responsible for them.

333AutismNews

How sad it is to know that parents are more interested in money than their child? Do you know how lucky you are to have your child. You have learned a very expensive and important lesson. Just be glad your child wasn't talking to a stranger pretending to be a child to eventually lure them away.

I love both my daughters very much but I feel bad for my older daughter as she misses out on alot of attention because her 8 year old sister is severely autistic and must be watched 24 hours a day. We must follow her like a crawling infant or 1 year old. She doesn't understand danger and has no fear of danger. Whats even more scarier is she has no stranger danger anyone can take her hand and she will walk away with them. My biggest fear. We must keep all our doors locked with double sided keys because she will try to run out even in winter.

1500 is nothing compared to what we've spent on her. We can't afford it but she needs it or enjoys it. She's very smart plans her ways to get what she wants but without fear.

I only get time away when she's at school or sleeping. We have special glass for her window so she can't break it.

So what matters more to you your child or money?

Shame on you to complain about something you had control over.Children are special, precious and our world. They should always be your number one priority.

So you made a mistake let your child have access to your phone without supervision admit it. I do it all the time but I've hidden my phone feature app & itunes features. I've disabled in app purchases. I disabled the ability to download apps

My daughter can now have access to baby einstein and an app that cost us 180.00 for her to use to help her get her words out since she's mostly non verbal. What we do for our children is more important than money.

Just think about this and please move on go spend time with your child. Thanks for listening.

The fact is that these options are predatory and have no apparent real-world purpose. Considering that Apple exerts strong control and restrictions on the app store, that they allow these types of options in their apps seems highly questionable.

I'm extremely tech savy and I just got burned for $50. My 7 year old was completely unaware he had purchased anything with "real money", as the line between in-game money and real money are blurred.

Now how can this happen? Pretty easily, apparently. My kids have to provide a password to purchase anything. I haven't given them the password. But apparently, after I type in a password to download a "free" app, there is some time where they can make purchases without my password in the game. Did I know this? Absolutely not. I also did not know the game that charged $50 had in-app purchases. I wasn't terribly concerned, because I believed the kids couldn't purchase anything without my further involvement.

I now have found the "disable in-app purchase" option, which I assume was added to the OS because of numerous complaints like mine. This is a step in the right direction, but there is much more that could and SHOULD be done to stop this predatory practice.

1. Passwords should be required ALWAYS for a purchase, not just every 10 minutes (or whatever it is, I don't see any setting for this!)

2. The "disable in-app purchase" should be the DEFAULT. You should have to turn this ON for it to be on. Expecting parents to find this setting 4 levels deep halfway down a grayed out section of restrictions is a bit unreasonable. I didn't see the need to disable the browser and didn't find these other options until now.

3. Apple should allow a set credit limit for each device.

4. Apple should seriously consider dis-allowing apps in the app store with $50, $100, $500 purchase options that are patently absurd.

Whether YOU like it or not, Apple does exert considerable control on their device and that means decisions like this are WILLFUL. And this actually makes Apple devices ideal for kids, because they ARE controllable. Very simple changes would prevent kids from accidentally running up charges like this. I think your attitude that this is somehow the parents fault is self-serving and extremely naive. I can watch my kid ride his bike on the street without standing on his handlebars.

Apparently you aren't tech savvy enough to read the manual.

The ability to restrict in-app purchases was added when the capability to make in-app purchases was added. Seems pretty tech logical, doesn't it?

The ability to turn off, or customize, the period that the password is active (15 minutes BTW, also in the manual), seems like a good idea to me, but suggesting it here accomplishes nothing. Send it here: http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html

No, the disable in-app purchase should not be the default, just like blocking adult fare on a cable or satellite receiver should not be the default. The parent should set these limits, especially as the iPhone is not particularly designed for children.

You could set up your iPhone to use iTunes Gift Cards and limit the purchases that could be made.

I'm not aware of any games that allow $100 or $500 purchases. Can you point them out? And what game was your child playing when they made a $50 purchase that you could not tell was "real"?

Your bicycle analogy really doesn't work in this instance.

I agree that apple/itunes should be attempting to protect their customers. I, as well as many other parents, was not aware that this "tap zoo" app was going to cost us several hundred dollars. To a kid playing the game, it was like playing with "pretend money" and they are not aware that it was actually being taken out of their parent's bank accounts. How deceitful! I had 6 charges of $99.99 from itunes in 1 day. I got lucky that my bank held these charges & contacted me in case they were fraudulent. Shame on itunes for allowing a game to "purchase" additional options for $100 bucks a pop! Don't blame the parents or kids.... Blame the sick people allowing this to happen and who are laughing all the way to the bank!

Why shouldn't we blame the parents or the kids?

Please feel free to blame the adults who have Allowed their children to use their iPhones offline to play games that they have vetted. I downloaded this game believing that it was intended for children, obviously I was wrong.

If the game was aimed at children it would not have this function. I do not know of any other application aimed at children that has a function for purchasing options.

In my case apple were brilliant at sorting my money back. They explained that I could disable the function for buying coins 'in-app' which means my child can now play safely with these types of application. The problem is solved.

In my opinion, the company that produced the game are working with the letter of the law to achieve their profit from a game aimed at children and there is nothing wrong with that legally. Apple, on the other Hand, seem to work within the spirit of the law, which has always been my experience of their service. Apple should nOt be blamed for their association with a company that exploits an ambiguous area of the law to make their profit.

There are lots of games, including children's apps, that have in-app purchases. Glad Apple told you about restricting in-app purchases.

I did check out this app before I let my boy play with it, so I hope I'll be spared the parenting advice from the frequent posters, but I have to agree with the parents that got burned that allowing high cost purchases in a kids app with no password required is pretty low behavior. It seems we're not the only ones who are concerned... the FTC is now looking into the issue:
FTC Looking Into In-App Purchases

With respect, in the iTunes Store (I can't speak for the in-phone store), you don't see the warning about in-app purchases unless you click the "More" link.

In "Tap Zoo Christmas", a free game very clearly aimed at children, there is a $99.99 purchase option for a "trunk of snowflakes". It's also the tenth most-popular purchase. I'm just going to throw those two facts out there without comment.

Matt