… And it’s still wide.
“Look at him, how calm and happy he is…”, said the mother of a 6-year-old boy to herself adorably. Conetica, United States, before learning that he had spent a total of $16,000 on an iPad game. Let’s hope he at least won the game…
A 6-year-old boy named George spent a huge $16,000 in-game purchases Sonic forces from the AppStore. An endless runner title in which players control the dizzying – if I can use the adjective – blue hedgehog from the SEGA video game saga.
Jessica Johnsonher mother, spoke to “Good Morning America” to explain how it all happened.
He spends over $16,000 buying rings in Sonic Forces
Specifically, George spent a total of $16,293 and 10 cents in Sonic Forces for iPad in-app purchases on the App Store to buy a whole bunch of rings that would likely let you run around and avoid obstacles in multiplayer. Or maybe to customize your character, who knows.
As his mother reports, the PayPal account was linked to the iPad. The device was password protected. However, iPad Settings has an option that saves you from having to retype your password after making a purchase.
“As a mother of very young children, I thought it was important for other parents to be aware of this. It’s very unfortunate because we were all in the pandemic, we were all working from home. And we were struggling to keep our children entertained while we finished work.
George Wilton’s mother, with very good intentions, repeatedly handed her iPad to her son and said, “Here, take the iPad.” It would have been better to buy a spinning top for the kid!
While reviewing his accounts, Jessica Johnson noticed that he appeared the same fee of $106.34 which would be repeated up to 12 times followed by other additional fees ranging from $200 to $600.
She immediately contacted the bank about this activity and the bank informed her that they were responsible for these charges and should contact Apple. Luckily from Apple they have the best customer service in the world and they fixed the problem.
Apple has confirmed that they are able to reimburse Jessica Johnson for any charges the company may identify, a total of $10,553
“We understand that errors can happen and we work with customers to investigate and inform them of the tools available for their protection.”
The boy’s mother said she had set a passcode on her iPad but had no idea what it was. there was an app store settings setting that let you make purchases without entering your password for a while after using it before.
“I didn’t know there was a setting for the child to continue shopping without the password after a certain period of time. There are several settings that I’m learning now.”
It is true that there is a configuration setting in the App Store that allows you to protect purchases with a password. However, in favor of the mother of the child, it must be said that this function is not as noticeable as it should be. It’s a bit hidden. It is not in Adjust > App Store
configuration parameters
From there it is possible to create the App Store always ask for the password or ask for it after 15 minutes. This last option in Settings means that if you entered the password within the last 15 minutes, the App Store will no longer ask you for it.
On the other hand, today there are multiple parental control functions for iPad through which it is possible to restrict access to certain applications, prohibit in-app purchases, block web pages and even set a time precise for the use of an application.
Jessica took advantage of the situation to denounce the behavior of certain mobile games.
“It’s intentionally designed to be the same brain chemical experience an adult would have in a casino.”
And the poor lady is not lacking in reason. In the end, he lost $5,500 just because her only 6 year old wanted to keep playing and playing. Sometimes these types of games are really addicting, that’s where their fun lies.
Fortunately, your son is very sensitive and very sweet. He apologized to his mother and assured that he would not do it again. In time it will remain in just an anecdote with which your child will have learned a very valuable lesson… you can get free rings by watching ads!
