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'My son spent £3,160 in one game'

bbc.co.uk

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Re: 'My son spent £3,160 in one game'

#81

Post by Wowfunhappy »

madeofpalk wrote: post #25
djhworld wrote: post #12

The amount of crap in the app stores that encourage this sort of behaviour is truly, truly shocking. The gaming community often lambast companies like EA etc for loot boxes ("surprise mechanics"), which is definitely a problem that needs to go away, but from this article I suspect there's a lot of examples of absolute bottom of the barrel shovelware on the app stores that's raking it in from accidental purchases from…

> Maybe any transaction should have a 2FA style system It does - at least on Apple devices, IAP need to be authenticated with a physical interaction, and Touch/Face ID.

Isn't that still single factor? It's touch OR password/info, not AND.

Re: 'My son spent £3,160 in one game'

#82

Post by goldcd »

So:

1) You allowed your son with the cognitive ability of a 7 year old, access to £3 grand.. I'm going out on a limb here, but I don't think that was wise. I'm unable to even imagine "the correct" way you were wanting your son to use that money. Shorting Symantec?

2) Your 16 year old stole £2k of your money (and then your daughter bailed you out?). Looking for a bright side, it wasn't opiates... and your student daughter already appears to have overcome genetics/environment to get her shit together.

3) "We are technically savvy" (I already know you're not.. but pray continue) - Oh your 12 year old spent the money you gave him access to from his own bank account.. Well I think lessons have been learnt on all sides here - and if you don't think it's his fault, chuck him another £700 and see what happens. I have some lovely magical-beans I'll cut you in on, for his email address.

4) "My 11-year-old daughter has spent over £100 of my money in a day downloading apps that are the same." Well that's a curious statement. Most stores would say "you already own this".. she was creating new accounts for the thrill of a fresh download? I can't help but feel despite your aforementioned tech-savvy swagger - you have no f'in idea what happened even as you spoke to the reporter. Still I'm completely reassured that you've now given her a PS3 where "No fraud, no online grooming and no bullying"... Three horrible things, but does most definitely have an online store, which is the single problematic thing you mentioned.

Oh I'm losing the will to live now.. and feeling increasingly misanthropic, so I'll stop.

Re: 'My son spent £3,160 in one game'

#83

Post by deogeo »

pkaye wrote: post #54
_1qd4 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compare this to the real world. You are in a store and your child heads to the counter with $3,000 worth of goods. He puts your credit card on the counter. At this point, the clerk would ask if mommy or daddy were around and probably would deny the purchase. But the digital world? Come right up little johnny!

How to tell the difference between an adult and a kid online assuming the adult gave their credit card to the kid?

More importantly, how to at the same time make payment as frictionless and password-free, so that you do not lose any business to people having second thoughts or going to competitors!

Because that is the purpose of a smartphone - to funnel the user's money to the true owners of the phone. Any barriers to that must be removed.

Re: 'My son spent £3,160 in one game'

#84

Post by deogeo »

codewithcheese wrote: post #51
djhworld wrote: post #12

The amount of crap in the app stores that encourage this sort of behaviour is truly, truly shocking. The gaming community often lambast companies like EA etc for loot boxes ("surprise mechanics"), which is definitely a problem that needs to go away, but from this article I suspect there's a lot of examples of absolute bottom of the barrel shovelware on the app stores that's raking it in from accidental purchases from…

2FA is one of those basic things that should be standard for all credit card charges. I want to have the change to approve or deny every charge. Is that so much to ask?

That would result in less consumer spending, so yes.

Re: 'My son spent £3,160 in one game'

#85

Post by bobthepanda »

la_barba wrote: post #19
filoleg wrote: post #2

Another one of those oversensationalized outrage articles that can be boiled down to "I cannot put even a minimal effort in keeping an eye on my children, so I will blame someone else for it and make it their responsibility." There is literally a setting on iOS for that specific specific scenario, which allows to prevent in-app purchases[0]. And it is very easy and intuitive to set up too, so it isn't like it is hidd…

Its written in a click-bait style (what news story isn't these days?) but the only take-home here for parents is that smartphone==credit card. The other issue is that usually for physical credit cards, its easy for a parent to keep it off limits. But if you're signed into services that can auto-charge you, things are a bit more tricky. Even if you had a separate account for your child, and only use a CC to authorize…

It's also that even if you do hide your credit card, your child only needs to take possession of it once to have it auto-saved somewhere.

Re: 'My son spent £3,160 in one game'

#86

Post by patorjk »

throwaway13337 wrote: post #4

Mobile free to play games now make up the majority of money made in video games today. It's strange then that most of these games aren't that interesting. Who are the players of these that make up the new class of gamers? It would seem that the payers are the exploitable - those able to be swindled with casino mechanisms. As an ex- free-to-play game developer and one who believes regulation often does more harm to co…

> It's strange then that most of these games aren't that interesting. Who are the players of these that make up the new class of gamers?

It's just one data point, but my mother-in-law, who's in her late 60's, plays a lot of free games. She did an audit of her spending last year and discovered she'd spent over $500 in Candy Crush (I think that was the game). She complained to them and they gave her a partial refund, though to my knowledge she continues to play the game. I would bet a lot of these players are less tech savvy older folks.

Re: 'My son spent £3,160 in one game'

#87

Post by filoleg »

Kiro wrote: post #70
filoleg wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with your point about non-apple platforms. I cannot enumerate all of them, but it would be silly of me to expect all of them to handle that scenario gracefully, and I believe they should be required to. However, Starcraft 2 is complete and been this way since the inception. They added microtransactions years after the full release, and they all boil down to cosmetics and other completely optional and non-nece…

They mean the fact that the game came out in instalments, which is a ridiculous complaint and has nothing to do with the topic at hand.

Considering that each installment might as well been a different game, just using the same engine and graphics, I agree that it is a ridiculous complaint. Each installment had a 12hr+ single player campaign + 12hr+ co-op campaign + completely different multiplayer experience.

Re: 'My son spent £3,160 in one game'

#88

Post by darkpuma »

filoleg wrote: post #2

Another one of those oversensationalized outrage articles that can be boiled down to "I cannot put even a minimal effort in keeping an eye on my children, so I will blame someone else for it and make it their responsibility." There is literally a setting on iOS for that specific specific scenario, which allows to prevent in-app purchases[0]. And it is very easy and intuitive to set up too, so it isn't like it is hidd…

It's immoral to exploit children under any circumstances, even (especially!) when the child has neglectful or careless parents.

Re: 'My son spent £3,160 in one game'

#89

Post by yardstick »

theturtletalks wrote: post #28
notus wrote: post #14

This is disgusting. Yes parents should be aware of these things but shifting the burden of locking down every system a child uses when this could be handled at the app store or financial processor level is ridiculous. It seems that some of these people are claiming that the game is not distinguishing well between fake and real currency. There are definitely games I've played where this is ambiguous as well. IMO there…

I know Apple asks for Face ID or Touch ID when making in app purchases. This seems like a deterrence, but not sure about Android.

You can always enter the iTunes password instead of using biometrics. I’ve done that using ApplePay on occasion with my phone.

Re: 'My son spent £3,160 in one game'

#90

Post by ihuman »

theturtletalks wrote: post #28
notus wrote: post #14

This is disgusting. Yes parents should be aware of these things but shifting the burden of locking down every system a child uses when this could be handled at the app store or financial processor level is ridiculous. It seems that some of these people are claiming that the game is not distinguishing well between fake and real currency. There are definitely games I've played where this is ambiguous as well. IMO there…

I know Apple asks for Face ID or Touch ID when making in app purchases. This seems like a deterrence, but not sure about Android.

You can even make it so it sends a request to the parent's phone asking for permission to make a purchase.
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