Apple will refund at least $32.5M inapp class action lawsuit

So Apple is being held accountable by negligent parents? How do you give your children your credit card info and account password? Not to mention all the people who lie about it so they won't have to pay. Anyway, Apple will probably just go and give them gift cards so they end up keeping the money.

 

I'm sure if parents knew of the sickening and exploitive IAP schemes available on the AppStore they would have been more careful.

Now you know what the target audience is of the scumbag developers who put one hundred dollar IAP options in their games.

 

They deserve it. But I still like there products.

 

This ^

 

It's a shame it's only for USA residents.. It brings me great pleasure knowing they will finally be held accountable for their shoddy actions. Hopefully they might consider reducing the maximum IAP price, I think $20 is a fair amount, anything higher is dodgy, in most cases.

 

I'm on both sides with this and was gonna start a discussion later today.

I believe it happens by accident, especially with the not having to enter password after for so long.

But I also think parents need to take responsibility and educate not just their children but also themselves.

Kids have access to so much technology these days and I really don't believe it's apples or the government or teachers or whatever to be held responsible for things like this for the bulk of the time, it's the parents. You are not just giving a kid game to play when you hand them your tablet, or give them a phone, you are giving them access to things that they shouldn't be. And you know in some cases parents are aware of the risks but still give them passwords for an easy life so they can download games. My best friends neight year old boy has been discovered to have watching extreme pornography on his phone. In her eyes it's the phones company fault because it was registered to a 9 year old. Nope. It's her fault for not making sure it was restricted. Has she learnt? No he still has iPad etc unsupervised and was then caught phoning babe station channels etc.

Kids are much brighter than they get credit for and I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of them knew exactly what they were doing and lie to the parents afterwards. A toddler doing it maybe, but then I wouldn't leave a toddler with an expensive device unattended anyway, but after the age of four, they are capable of understanding that you ask before you buy.

My daughter is 8 and from the toddler years she has had access to the internet and gaming consoles. (She's a mummy girl) and from an early age i have drummed into her about the dangers and keeping passwords safe etc. if she has asked to join a site I check it out first, all iOS games are checked on my device before going on hers. Anything I'm unsure about I check it first. I've never had to block iaps or the PC equivalent because I trust her, she always checks with me if any pop up comes up and even checks about allowing push notification. It's just second nature to her.
I get that some parents some know nothing about technology but blocking iaps and parental locks are the very basics, the same parents will no doubt have Facebook accounts, if they navigate that shit, then they can set up controls to keep their kids safe.

Just recently I set up my three nephews iPads, explained dangers to mum, and I found out they all have the password now, it's a matter of time before they buy gems and I'll bet you a hundred quid, it won't be her fault In her eyes.

Sorry for long post, in short, accidents happen, and they should be refunded but I bet over half amount apple has to pay could have easily been avoided by parents taking responsibility and ensuring kids don't have passwords and are not left unattended when online.

 

I agree. Devs should definitely take responsibility for putting one hundred dollar IAP in a video game.

 

Apple deserves to pay out because of stupid parents? Don't think so.

 

Well, you gotta put the blame on someone Apple are rich, go figure.

 

I'll put the blame where it belongs: the parents and greedy lawyers.

But I'm not putting you down for your opinion if it happens to be different.

 

Parents do know that they can just put passwords on all purchases right? did i just blow peoples minds or something? If you are dumb enough to let ur kid buy iap then u shouldnt be buying Idevices in the first place. I guess "parents" now are more knowledgeable about video games but I still think of them like my parents (im 32) only thinking mario bros and donkey kong are the only 2 video games. Just like how whenever you see video games in mainstream media they still have bloops and bleeps with terrible graphics. Makes me want to slap the movie makers.

 

Of course parents can monitor their kids better to prevent this from happening, or at least curb the frequency. Developers can also put whatever they want as their IAP. However, let's put two and two together. The lawsuit involved children using IAP. I've seen IAP go up to one hundred dollars numerous times. Ironic how a developer can allow an IAP for a consumable product that is directly targeting kids, but claims it isn't economically feasible to offer a truly Premium version of their game.

 

I'm fairly certain that the reason for this is that Apple didn't make parents aware that if they type in their password, the password screen will be bypassed for 15 minutes afterwards. In other words, kid says "Mom can you type in your password so I can download this free game?" Mom says "Sure" and does it. Kid runs off with iPad and sees that you can get some currency to make things easier. Taps on the most valuable one and it doesn't ask him for a password as long as it's within 15 minutes.

It's possible that the password bypass only works after buying IAP. I don't remember. But still, a parent could buy a $.99 IAP and hand the iPad off to their kid, who then buys the $99 one without knowing. Or maybe the kid does know.

But anyway, the settlement isn't meant for parents who gave their password to their kids as far as I know. It's for parents who weren't aware of the 15 minute loophole (because Apple didn't exactly make it public knowledge). Now it's very likely some parents who gave the password to their kids will get refunds from this anyway, but that's another story.

 

Ehhhh I'm quite against this. A lot of the times it's devs that are trying to do what we gamers want (release a premium game) but don't get the success they need, so they switch to freemium in hope that they'll make revenue.

 

Yup. And then what did the parents think once they saw that you can buy a hundred dollar IAP from a video game? LOL. So seedy.

 

I don't have much to say on the topic at hand, but I just wanted to say that even though you have been here for a relatively short time, you have quickly become one of those users I have a deep amount of respect for. The world needs more parents like you. You actually remind me if mine

You go girl!

 

That's a lovely thing to say, it's made my day #. Thank you.