In what seems to becoming a weekly occurrence, yet another child has run up a huge bill via free to play games on Itunes.
The child in this case, a male aged 13, managed to run up a staggering £3000 + bill on his fathers credit card. The child downloaded more than 300 extras for free to play games. The boy claims to have not known that all these extras incurred charges to his fathers credit card. The father of the child has accused Itunes of ”duping” his son.
Unlike the other stories reported in the past, Itunes has refused to give a refund to the frustration of the father. In reaction to Itunes refusal, the father has since reported his son to the Action Fraud helpline. Apple have sighted their refusal on the grounds of parental responsibility. Apple went on to say Ipads have a number of passwords and locks to avoid this kind of thing from happening.
Given the age of the child it seems rather unlikely that he was unaware that his downloads were costing money. It’s also unfair to try and aim blame at Apple given it’s the responsibility of the parent to regulate their children’s behavior, even more so when credit cards and money in involved. We’ve seen Apple grant refunds for this kind of thing in the past, but in those cases the bills were much smaller and the children much younger.
Do free to play apps/games on Itunes need more regulation? Or is it a simple case of parents being rather ignorant towards a system that isn’t exactly new?
