Apple Loses $100 Million In Class Action Suit Because Our Kids Know How To Use Our Phones Better Than We Do
Apple has settled a $100 million class action suit with parents demanding they be paid back for purchases their kids made without their approval. I wish I could get on my high horse here and say, Hey idiot parents – control your children! It’s not Apple’s fault you can’t keep them away from your phone! But I would be pissed, too.
The password function is the only thing my toddler hasn’t figured out on my phone. Do you have any idea how much money I would owe Apple if my little technological genius could crack my password? It turns out I may have paid Apple handsomely already – even without my toddler knowing my password. Apparently, there are “add-ons” that require no password for purchase. Not good.
News Grio reports:
The problem, parents complained, was often with games that seemed at their face to be free. But when given a closer examination, some of the supposedly free apps could easily be enhanced by add-ons. For a fee.
ABC News gives the ”˜highly publicized’ example of an 8-year-old who managed to spend $1,400 on ”˜Smurfberries’ within the ”˜free to play’ app of Smurf Village, available on iTunes.
The top of the iTunes download page for Smurf Village currently reads ”˜PLEASE NOTE: Smurfs’ Village is free to play, but charges real money for additional in-app content. You may lock out the ability to purchase in-app content by adjusting your device’s settings.’
Um, what? I always assumed I had to enter a password to purchase anything on my phone. Now I am thinking I should probably go through my credit card statements and see how much money I’ve paid Apple in the last few months.
I know a lot of people have a problem putting their phone down, but I am not one of them. I’m not one of those people who is constantly looking at her phone. I never really have my ringer on. For this reason, my toddler pretty much owns my phone. I put it down, he finds it and plays with it. He occasionally tweets some children’s videos that probably make my followers think I am strange and he takes the most adorable selfies. I honestly always thought allowing him to play with my phone was harmless. Wrong again.
I suck at this parenting thing sometimes.
(photo: Songquan Deng/ Shutterstock)