Global General

Kids go on iPhone game buying sprees

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-12-11 09:40

NEW YORK - The Smurfs' Village, a game for the iPhone and other Apple gadgets, was released a month ago and quickly became the highest-grossing application in the iTunes store. Yet it's free to download.

Customers look at display sets of Apple's iPhone 4 at a registration desk at the headquarters of South Korean mobile carrier KT in Seoul Nov 9, 2010. [File photo/Agencies]

So where does the money come from? Kelly Rummelhart of California has part of the answer. Her 4-year-old son was using her iPad to play the game and racked up $66.88 in charges on her credit card without knowing what he was doing.

Related readings:  China Unicom issues new rules for iPhone resales  Google Earth, iPhone trouble Israeli security chief  Apple's iPhone 4 still in high demand  Locals spooked by iPhone 4

Rummelhart had no idea that it was possible to buy things - buy them with real money - inside the game. In this case, her son bought one bushel and 11 buckets of "Smurfberries", tokens that speed up gameplay.

"Really, my biggest concern was them scratching the screen. Never in my wildest dreams did I think they would be charging things on it," the 36-year-old mother said.

She counts herself lucky that her son didn't start tapping on another purchase button, like the "wheelbarrow" of Smurfberries for $59.99.

Rummelhart joins a number of parents who have been horrified by purchases of Smurfberries and other virtual items in top App Store games. The 17 highest-rated comments on The Smurfs' Village in the App Store all complain about the high cost of the Smurfberries, and two commenters call it a "scam".

Apple introduced "in-app purchases" last year, letting developers use the iTunes billing system to sell items and add-ons in their games and applications.

This year, developers have started to use the system in earnest as the main revenue stream for many games. Of the 10 highest-grossing apps in the App Store, six are games that are free to download but allow in-app purchases. Four of those are easy, child-friendly games. Two of them, Tap Zoo and Bakery Story, have buttons for in-app purchases of $100 in just two taps.

Capcom Entertainment Inc, the publisher of The Smurfs' Village, says inadvertent purchases by children are "lamentable".

When it realized what was happening, it added a warning about the option of in-app purchases to the game's description in the App Store, and it's updating the game to include warnings inside it as well. The game has retreated to being the fourth-highest-grossing app in the App Store.

The warnings may alert parents, but it's doubtful that they'd deter children who can't read and don't understand money. Also, the option to buy $59.99 worth of Smurfberries at a time remains. Capcom spokesman Michael Larson says Smurfs is no different from other games in this regard, and the bulk purchasing option is useful to adult "power players".

It's quite likely that most of the money pulled in by these games comes from addicted adults who want to quickly build their Smurf villages, bakeries, zoos and zombie farms. But there's a loophole in the in-app purchase process that children stick their fingers through.

Usually, the purchases require the owner of the device to enter his or her iTunes password.

But there is no password challenge if the owner has entered the password in the last 15 minutes for any reason.

That means that if a user enters the password for a purchase or a free app upgrade, then hands the phone or iPad over to a kid, the child will not be stopped by a password prompt.

Capcom and other game publishers have no control over the 15-minute password-free period, which is set by Apple.

Associated Press