Although the big political story at the moment is the death
of Margret Thatcher, the world of media and marketing is focused on mobile and
tablet apps that use in-game purchases.
After five year old Bristolian Danny Kitchen racked up a £1,700 bill while playing the (supposedly) free mobile and tablet game Zombies vs Ninjas by unwittingly making several in-game purchases, many developers have now found themselves under scrutiny.
But do they deserve the brunt of the blame?
The Office of Fair Trading seems to think so even though they've only just started investigating
in-game purchases. In
his Marketing Weekly blog Russell
Parsons takes us through some of the OFT’s quotes, which seem to be fixed on
illegality and marketers pressuring and intentionally confusing both parents
and children.
But is this really illegal? The argument is that although these games are free they force you to pay to complete the game. Personally I've witnessed this first hand, but it was always clearly labeled and it wasn't easy to accidentally pay when I didn't mean to.
Also, I find some difficulty with this story, because how
does the child have access to spend that amount of money. When you buy an
app or make an in-game purchase on something on an iPad or iPhone you have to put
in a password. So how did Danny get the password? And shouldn't this mean the parent(s) warrant a large slice of the blame?
So shouldn't this conversation be about parental supervision and financial responsibility rather than the legality of in-game purchases?
Surly at the age of five the parents of Danny ought to have
been taking better notice of what he was doing. I mean they wouldn't leave £1,500 in cash lying on a table in front of an open window. Or would they?
Of course other questions we should ask ourselves is whether
we give children too much freedom with technology. Although Danny did not own
the iPad he was obviously given considerable freedom to use it.
The OFT’s aim is to find whether or not the safeguards in
place are strong enough.
So are they?
Or is it the parents who are at fault?
As an aside - some online payment arrangements include a maximum limit that once reached triggers a re-approval requirement before additional amounts can be cleared. This requirement requires additional security answers.
As an aside - some online payment arrangements include a maximum limit that once reached triggers a re-approval requirement before additional amounts can be cleared. This requirement requires additional security answers.