Office of Fair Trading launches children's apps investigation

Xordium said:
Yes, it is for some people who are not tech savvy. The powers that be have to cater for all walks of life and most people strangely enough do not know such things so when deliberately manipulative strategies are employed it is right they challenge them. Doesn't absolve parenting skills and for people to learn how to use things safely. I take it you're the perfect parent and bring your kids up yourself and get everything spot and are always around to supervise them etc?
Click to expand...

nope no kids yet, but i wouldn't just plonk them down with a ipad without it setup in a way so that they couldn't spend money or end up on websites i wouldn't want them to see. if they dont understand how things work, maybe they should learn a bit or ask the so called experts they bought it off to show them. or if thats too hard, dont buy ipads and the like in the first place.

maybe i just hark back to a time where people where responsible for their actions and didn't need the state to hold their hand every step of the way.
 
GAC said:
nope no kids yet, but i wouldn't just plonk them down with a ipad without it setup in a way so that they couldn't spend money or end up on websites i wouldn't want them to see. if they dont understand how things work, maybe they should learn a bit or ask the so called experts they bought it off to show them. or if thats too hard, dont buy ipads and the like in the first place.

maybe i just hark back to a time where people where responsible for their actions and didn't need the state to hold their hand every step of the way.
Click to expand...

Maybe they are not even aware of the issue? Maybe as roughly 25% of people in this country leave education without basic numeracy and literacy asking them to understand or even comprehend such a situation when it could be averted is rather short-sighted.

So you think there is no challenge needed to these companies then?
So you think the mere representation of things sold as GenericGamingCompanyName points rather than being shown at actual real cost is not deceptive?

So if and when you have kids will you shut down your PC every time you leave the kids in the same room? Or will you leave Steam open and ready for purchases? Because I have Steam open here and my kids will come in this room and if they wanted to they could buy what they want on there and I expect every other gaming parent does the same. Easy mistake to make - especially when phones and apps are often linked into things like Google Wallet etc.
 
my view is the company while being greedy are not doing anything illegal its more down to people being fast and loose with their gaming habits.

as for what id do if i had kids, id make sure at the very least they had there own login on the pc, and i wouldn't leave any cc details logged in to anything they maybe able to get in to.

kids will be kids, be it on purpose or just out of curiosity they will end up buying something, and then its too late.
 
GAC said:
and i wouldn't leave any cc details logged in to anything they maybe able to get in to.
Click to expand...

So if you were in the house with your kids whilst logged into Steam and you went to the bathroom you would log out of Steam and whatever game you were on for those few minutes?
 
or use a wonderful feature called "lock this pc" but as i said if i was allowing kids to use my steam account i wouldn't leave any cc details on it. so even if they tried to buy something they wouldn't be able to without getting a hold of a credit card physically.
 
Well good for you I am sure when you have kids you will be so vigilant for the whole of the 18 years likely duration they live with you! Doesn't change the fact the companies are deceptive you only have to look at the presentation and they should rightly be taken to task. I personally think any MT should be labelled as £ not some arbitary unit used by games companies to deliberately hide the amount you are spending. That would be a good start.
 
hahahahaa

I find it hilarious,

All these parents being raped hard cause they let their little sprog onto their Iphone. Buy them a gameboy or something and call it even.
 
Freakbro said:
That's the whole point though isn't it, part of the reason regulations are there is to stop the stupid getting ripped off by the unscrupulous.
Click to expand...

The kids need protection from their parents. The parents do need any more help and can sink or swim.
 
#Chri5# said:
Can you set limits on in app purchases?

The in-app purchases for The Simpons game go up to £99 the last time I looked :eek:
Click to expand...

As much as I agree parents are stupid for leaving accounts logged in, the price of some in game content is a joke.
Candy Crush IAP range from 69p up to 1 booster being £27.99!!!!!
Games where you buy gems or coins can be upwards of £50. It is a license to print their own money.
 
The problem I have with "in game purchases" is that I would rather just buy the game outright, I think as a consumer we should have that option.

It's a game on a phone/ipad, who want to pay £50 let alone £££££ for an game app!
 
Morba said:
As much as I agree parents are stupid for leaving accounts logged in, the price of some in game content is a joke.
Candy Crush IAP range from 69p up to 1 booster being £27.99!!!!!
Games where you buy gems or coins can be upwards of £50. It is a license to print their own money.
Click to expand...

IAP started off as a low amount in most games/apps. Now, because it is a license to print money they've pushed up the prices. Apple and Google get a 30% cut so they aren't going to be too quick to clam down on this...

HEADRAT said:
The problem I have with "in game purchases" is that I would rather just buy the game outright, I think as a consumer we should have that option.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but that makes devs less money. :(
 
Sure but it just a rip-off, if you not given the option to buy outright then you're just exploiting your customer with these ridiculously high prices for in game purchases.
 
Edrof said:
Not hard but inconvenient... We only slipped up once when I popped out of the room briefly and the app store had 'remembered' my password for a few minutes (as it does).
Click to expand...

Not inconvenient at all.
Settings > General > Restrictions > enter PIN > enter PIN
In-App Purchases = OFF
Require Password = Immediatley

Problem sorted in under 20 seconds.

If parents can't spend the time to find out how to protect their children & money then I'm afraid I have limited sympathy.
 
If I have read the OP correctly the investigation isn't into children spending money on their parents account (which I'm sure does happen too) but into the pressure that these games put children and parents under to spend money on what they thought were free games. i.e. lured in by a free game and then the child nags the parent to buy in-game purchases.

The approach I've taken with my kids is that their ipads are linked to their own account. I will occasionally top up their available money with a small itunes voucher each and when they want to spend it they have to ask me first. If for any reason they spend their "allowance" without discussing with me first then it simply doesn't get topped up for a long time and they then have no money to spend. This teaches them the value of ther money that they have and not to spend it unwisely.

I'm very cautious on letting them spend money and will only agree to it if it's a game that threy have been playing for a considerable time and seem to really enjoy.
 
Balming the folks who get scammed because they didn't know any better. Stay classy OCUK.
 
Edrof said:
Oh, and in before the 'lol kids shouldn't have tablets anyway, they should be out in the fresh air on penny farthings made of coal' brigade.
Click to expand...

**** penny farthings get the little ones out on some motos/trail bikes in the fields :p
 
Freakbro said:
So...they are looking into any 'potentially misleading or commercially aggressive practices' and whether there is any 'unfair pressure or encouragement to pay for additional content'

What's the problem with that....it's what the OFT is supposed to do?
Click to expand...

Because it furthers the notion that the general public should bear no responsibility for their own actions, it maintains the myth that the public are just easily led drones that need protecting from their own naivety.

It will also encourage the makers of these apps to simply stop providing a free version. It's unfair to people who take responsibility and have the basic skill of being able to tell their kids "no".
 
OP doesn't understand how to use apostrophes, question marks and exclamation marks.

OP calls others stupid for not understanding how to use something else.

What is OP?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom