Apps Gone Wild

So Apple is finally having to repay all the unauthorized app purchases made by children using their parents' Apple IDs and credit cards on file.  I'm not sure who has the most blame here: parents, children, or Apple. Mostly because the entire situation is ENTIRELY AVOIDABLE.

In my job, we rolled out 500+ ipads to staff and walked them through Apple ID creation....with no credit card requirement for this very reason (hint you must do it on a mobile device with a free app to trigger this roundabout). So Apple does provide a way to avoid putting your credit card on standby even if it may not be well-promoted. And every store on the planet sells iTunes gift cards so you can purchase apps, music, etc in limited amounts.  But the 15-minute window for not prompting a password to purchase should be closed immediately.

Parents should not be sharing their passwords with their children....particularly if those children do not understand the concept of monetary exchange. Do you give them your PIN number, too?! I am in my 30s and it wasn't until a few months ago that my parents even let me hold their debit card in my hands (to purchase their own groceries mind you).

There is also a little trick called Turning Off the Wifi. Can't purchase something you can't connect to. And if your children are normal, they are probably tapping away not truly paying attention to what they are tapping so without wifi they can't "accidently" tap a purchase right onto your credit card.

Lastly, children should be taught that if they are using someone else's stuff, they shouldn't be dinking around with personal things they might find. You might borrow someone's computer but do you start making changes to their documents? Do you start downloading new programs to their desktop? Did that curtesy stop when devices got smaller?

Let's just call it a $100 million dollar lesson for everyone....even though we all should have known.