My daughter just cost me £100

[sscott]

My 5yr old daughter is allowed on the iPAD when I'm with her, Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja and Dora the explorer and that's it! Sorry to hear of your 'loss'!

[Darran@Retro Gamer]

My 5yr old daughter is allowed on the iPAD when I'm with her, Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja and Dora the explorer and that's it! Sorry to hear of your 'loss'!

She certainly won't be using it unsupervised again...
I just hope she didn't buy anything on Saturday and Sunday...

[Rinoa]

Oh dear, that's not good at all. Right before Christmas too - ouch!

[andyc]

To be honest, I think it's pretty despicable that a game so obviously targetted at children makes it so easy to spend actual money. I mean, it'd be pretty bad if Halo or Resident Evil had in-game purchasing that wasn't making the cost apparent, but you could at least expect adults to know what they're doing. Kids just aren't going to have a clue and I don't really think it's acceptable to abuse the parents expectation that a smurfs type game would be 'safe' for them to play with.

[ReplayRetro]

I've since discovered that you can completely turn off in-app purchasing, but I'm absolutely appalled that you're not prompted for a password (which my daughter doesn't know) whenever you spend such a significant amount of money.

when did apple ever give a crap about protecting their customers? once you've bought something from apple all they want is more money and they don't care how they get it, i guarantee somebody working on the iPad suggested password lockout here and was silenced by higher powers within apple.
they've always been and always will be money grabbing gits selling fairly average products at massively inflated values

/Rant

[FatTrucker]

As a matter of interest is there no consumer law regarding micro payments and the seller having a responsibility to make the consumer aware directly prior to a payment being made?.
I know these titles will include info about payments in their T&C's or EULA's but surely with online transactions there has to be a requirement for a customer to give consent prior to any payment being taken?.

[mohicankid]

To be honest, I think it's pretty despicable that a game so obviously targetted at children makes it so easy to spend actual money. I mean, it'd be pretty bad if Halo or Resident Evil had in-game purchasing that wasn't making the cost apparent, but you could at least expect adults to know what they're doing. Kids just aren't going to have a clue and I don't really think it's acceptable to abuse the parents expectation that a smurfs type game would be 'safe' for them to play with.

fable 3 has ingame purchasing, their is a room in your sanctuary you go to and you can buy items direct from market place using your points,in the exact manner you use the in game shops! if you don't have points you can readily buy them using your SAVED card details without the need to re-enter anything or provide a password!
ok f3 IS a 16...but we all know that parents allow their kids to play these game, and most family's share profiles rather than paying 2-3 times!

[pottyboy]

That's not good news Darran!

Could've been worse though... she could've broken it as well. My boss had to send his iPhone off for repair because his 2 year old daughter put it in her mouth, causing the "home" button to malfunction!

[clarance]

Can't you just put it down on your expenses form though?

[Darran@Retro Gamer]

Good news. Apple has refunded the money. They state this is a one-off time, but as I've now switched off in-App purchases I'm fine with that.

[Antiriad2097]

Hurrah for Apple's customer service.

Did they let her keep the stuff she bought?

[the_hawk]

That's pretty good of them & no doubt a relief so close to Xmas. (Maybe Santa can take her off the naughty list now.)

All's well that ends well. Valuable lesson learnt!

[Servbot]

Good news. Apple has refunded the money. They state this is a one-off time, but as I've now switched off in-App purchases I'm fine with that.

wow didn't expect that! Good to hear

[chewy]

To be fair, I don't think you can really blame the kid. To a 5 year old, real money is just like monopoly money, so spending it (especially when it's not a physical transaction) won't faze them! Glad you got the refund though, silver lining!