If your kid blew $$$s on in-app tat, Google has a slice of $19m+ for you

Google has promised to return at least $19m (£11.6m) to parents who were unexpectedly billed for in-app purchases made by their kids. The web giant today agreed to the payout in a settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission. According to the watchdog, children could to go on spending sprees with mummy or daddy's credit …

[Dan Paul]

Better to spend the money on better game designs?

You would think with 19 Million dollars to throw around that Google could pay the developer so they could make games that did not need in game purchases to begin with.

I know I'm not thinking right. Must be the post game stress disorder.

[Anonymous Coward]

I am not American.

Any news of return of payment deals for other countries?

Does every country have to rely on their own watchdog to take Google to task?

If so I don't hold out much hope for residents of Blighty with our toothless 'enforcement' bodies.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I am not American.

No, problem only affects America, were the intelligence level of parents is substantially lower.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I am not American.

But their manners are significantly more refined.

[erikj]

How about XBox?

So, I have this, um, friend whose teenager recently racked up quite an Xbox bill on in-app purchases via an Amex card, which was provided by my friend's spouse for a one-time purchase some months ago. Just wondering if the Apple and Google situation might bleed over to Microsoft. Maybe I'll tell my friend to hang on to his Amex statements, just in case?

[Anonymous Coward]

I do wonder what the parents were doing while their kids were using the cards. For a start how did the kids get hold of the necessary card information in the first place and secondly why didn't the parents do something about it before large amounts of money were transferred?

[dkjd]

What happened is you put in your parental password for your sprog to buy something, then as default google would assume that you ALSO ok'ed anything that was bought for the next 30 minutes.

[MrDamage]

Still the parents fault.

They were the ones who agreed to the T&C's, which stated this would happen.

If they decided it was too difficult to read the fine print relating to the services which they want to use, it's hardly Google's fault.

Parental laziness is the root of the problem, as it were they who decided little Johnny, or Jospehina, could only be properly entertained by a piece of electronic tat, rather than interacting with the snot nosed brat themselves.

[Neil 51]

Re: Still the parents fault.

" They were the ones who agreed to the T&C's, which stated this would happen.

If they decided it was too difficult to read the fine print relating to the services which they want to use, it's hardly Google's fault."

From the article:

"A year later Google added a consent form that the cardholder had to click on, but it didn't mention that the form gave tearaways a 30-minute buying window before they would have to pester their parents for permission again. This allowed children to buy more stuff than their parents expected"

Yeah, don't you hate it when people don't read things through properly.

[Trigonoceps occipitalis]

Re: Still the parents fault.

For latest advice see: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/bank-accounts/11073466/Dont-waste-time-reading-terms-and-conditions.html

[Anonymous Coward]

And you didn't watch them then more fool you.

[Dan 55]

Why all the flack over in-app purchasing when with Google the app store itself could be set up to allow purchases without authentication (I forget if it was the default or not) and with Amazon it's still the only option, anyone with your tablet can buy with the card linked to the Amazon account to their heart's content?

Also iCloud and Play allow vouchers to be used whereas with Amazon a card is the only option.

[ecofeco]

Real money?

That's nice and all, but will it be real money or coupons and discounts and will it be distributed this year of sometime in the next 10 years?

[andy 10]

Hooray!

$10 Play store credit for everyone, $16m for the lawyers...

[Boris the Cockroach]

Re: Hooray!

Sorry its more likel $7.5 million for the lawyers (30% or so) and $2.50 in google play money for everyone else.

[RyokuMas]

$19 million?

I thought that was their lobbying budget for the year...