Speaker 1: How to make sure your kids don't rack up charges
Speaker 1: for in app purchases.
Speaker 2: What's going on? I'm rich DeMuro.
Speaker 1: This is rich on Tech. It is story time, and
Speaker 1: it involves me and my son. Long story short, my
Speaker 1: six year old racked up nearly one hundred dollars in
Speaker 1: charges on his iPad for in app purchases. So let
Speaker 1: me explain what went wrong and how you can avoid
Speaker 1: the same fate.
Speaker 2: So the story starts with Super Mario Run. You know
Speaker 2: that game. It's really fun. It's from Nintendo.
Speaker 1: My son wanted to play it, so I downloaded it
Speaker 1: to his iPad.
Speaker 2: Now, to do this, I have.
Speaker 1: To unlock all the restrictions that I have placed on
Speaker 1: his device. To do this, I have to go under
Speaker 1: Settings General, then Restrictions, type in my passcode, and I
Speaker 1: have most things disabled at all times, including the iTunes Store,
Speaker 1: installing apps, deleting apps, and in app purchases.
Speaker 2: So whenever I want to install.
Speaker 1: A new app or update the apps on his device,
Speaker 1: I have to go in here and disable the restrictions
Speaker 1: by using a special passcode. Then, once you're finished installing
Speaker 1: an app or downloading for purchasing.
Speaker 2: An app, you have to go back in and re
Speaker 2: enable them.
Speaker 1: Well, apparently, after downloading Super Mario Run, I forgot to
Speaker 1: re enable the restrictions.
Speaker 2: But that's not all I forgot to do. But there was.
Speaker 1: Another clue when my son wanted to unlock the entire game,
Speaker 1: which by the way, costs ten dollars.
Speaker 2: It's a lot for an in app purchase, but I
Speaker 2: was willing to do it, but I thought it was
Speaker 2: odd that.
Speaker 1: All I needed was his fingerprint to complete the transaction.
Speaker 2: Fast forward two days go by.
Speaker 1: I come home the other day and my wife says, hey,
Speaker 1: you might want to take a look at Parker's iPad
Speaker 1: because he was going on what she described as a
Speaker 1: buying spree. And I thought, in my head, well, that's
Speaker 1: not really possible. He can't do that. I had a
Speaker 1: feeling maybe I forgot to re enable the restrictions, so
Speaker 1: that's what she was talking about. But certainly if he
Speaker 1: was actually making any purchases, I'd have to approve them first.
Speaker 2: Well, nope, not the case. I looked in his email
Speaker 2: and I found.
Speaker 1: Three charges, three real charges seventy nine to ninety nine
Speaker 1: for an in app purchase of gems in a racing
Speaker 1: game he likes. Then two more charges of seven to
Speaker 1: ninety nine each for more gems, for a total of
Speaker 1: ninety five ninety seven.
Speaker 2: Of course, what I do.
Speaker 1: I called up Apple immediately and I got a friendly
Speaker 1: woman named Melissa on the phone, and I explained to
Speaker 1: her what had happened.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: Eventually Apple gave me the credit, and getting in touch
Speaker 1: with them was very easy. We even got disconnected and
Speaker 1: she called me back. And I really liked how they
Speaker 1: verify your account. You actually log into your account on
Speaker 1: your desktop and you look in this tiny corner for
Speaker 1: a four digit code.
Speaker 2: You tell that code to Apple, and that's how they
Speaker 2: verify you.
Speaker 1: I thought that was pretty smart. So I explained the
Speaker 1: issue to Melissa, which I assumed she had heard a
Speaker 1: thousand times that day so far, and she explained what
Speaker 1: happened to me. She said, there was one setting turned
Speaker 1: off on my son's account, and that's called ask to Buy.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure how that happened, because I'm aware of
Speaker 1: this setting and it's enabled for my other son's account,
Speaker 1: and I don't know how.
Speaker 2: It got turned off.
Speaker 1: But basically, they're supposed to send you a text when
Speaker 1: your kid wants to purchase something, and when you see
Speaker 1: that text or that notification.
Speaker 2: Right on your phone.
Speaker 1: You can approve or deny the purchase. Now you can
Speaker 1: find this under setting. You tap your name at the top,
Speaker 1: or says I Cloud, then family Sharing, Then you tap
Speaker 1: the name of your kid and make sure that ask
Speaker 1: to buy is turned on.
Speaker 2: In my case, it was turned off.
Speaker 1: That's how he was able to purchase the item without
Speaker 1: my approval. Now that feature is turned back on. So
Speaker 1: again two things here. The restrictions were off and the
Speaker 1: ask to buy was off, So two failures.
Speaker 2: That's how he was able to purchase.
Speaker 1: Now, Melissa refunded me the in app purchases. I asked
Speaker 1: her if this happened often. I was guessing she deals
Speaker 1: with it all day long. She said, yes, she has
Speaker 1: an eleven year old.
Speaker 2: This is kind of a known thing.
Speaker 1: But I assume she's not really allowed to elaborate because
Speaker 1: I don't think Apple would like that.
Speaker 2: But crisis averted.
Speaker 1: I'm not mad at my kid, but I do think
Speaker 1: it's interesting how fast something like this can happen, even
Speaker 1: when you think you're being pretty diligent with your restriction settings.
Speaker 1: One thing I do think that Apple can improve is
Speaker 1: that when a kid makes a purchase on a family account.
Speaker 1: I think that the family organizer she get a copy
Speaker 1: of the receipt.
Speaker 2: No matter what I mean. My kid is six listed
Speaker 2: as six in there. I'm the family organizer.
Speaker 1: I think it's only logical that I would get an
Speaker 1: email when he makes a purchase. That way, myself and
Speaker 1: all parents are alerted instantly, and they can take action
Speaker 1: sooner than later. Lesson learned. But the story still gives
Speaker 1: me a laugh. But that's only because it was all
Speaker 1: worked out in the end. My kid asked if I
Speaker 1: was mad at him.
Speaker 2: I said no.
Speaker 1: I actually thought it was pretty brilliant of him to
Speaker 1: go on this instant buying spree, because you know, he's
Speaker 1: tapped those buttons so many times before and they didn't
Speaker 1: do anything, and now once they did something, he probably
Speaker 1: found that pretty interesting. Thanks so much for listening to
Speaker 1: the podcast. If you like the Rich on Tech podcast,
Speaker 1: please rate and review it in Apple Podcasts. You can
Speaker 1: also now listen in Google Podcasts, So if you're on
Speaker 1: Android you haven't downloaded the new Google podcast app, why
Speaker 1: not give it a try. I'm rich Dimiro. Thanks so
Speaker 1: much for listening. You can find links to everything I
Speaker 1: talk about here at richon tech dot TV.
Speaker 2: I'll talk to you real soon.