Today we arrive with another news about the Apple company, which has different nuances. The Federal Trade Commission (protecting americans consumers), which is a state office for the defense of American consumers, has been sued because they have been charging parents for purchases on the App Store that they had not authorized.
The dozens of complaints received by the FTC showed baffled consumers because apparently they had not been informed about the 15 minutes of additional purchases (in app) during which anyone could be making purchases without authorization. This occurs after entering a password that approves an initial purchase, and it seems that in many homes, this time was used by children to download applications or updates whose global cost has been adding millions of dollars.
The news of origin specifically cites the case of a consumer whose daughter based $ 2600 on 'Tap Pet Hotel'. Money that will be returned to that family and many others that have been spent without being aware of what was happening
An agreement has now been signed that requires Apple to change its billing practices to make it more evident that a real purchase is taking place during the course of a game or application. Measure that I celebrate, but that must be accompanied by family education: this is greater communication between parents and children, concern to know the operation of the terminals, interest in knowing what games interest them, etc.
The iOS system as we anticipated here, already has levels of restriction through age control, the children's store includes controls that parents must activate, etc. Parents do not go as far behind as we think (despite the fact that in technological skills any child surpasses us), however on the issue that the problem is addressed today are the 15 additional minutes that the device has activated by default.
In this case it is considered that the law has been broken, and I believe that everyone has done their part to solve it. However, we reiterate the need to exercise greater supervision over the use that our children give to the smartphone, with the additional objective that little by little they also take responsibility.
