Children's In-App Purchases in "Free" Apple Games

Seeger Weiss is investigating charges incurred by parents and guardians after they permitted their children to download free game applications (or apps), and those children bought in-app content for up to $100 or more per item once prompted by the free "kid-friendly" game. Apps can be used on portable devices like the Apple iPod Touch, iPhone, or iPad, and while Apple requires a password to download a new app or to make a purchase - until recently it allowed users to make additional purchases for up to fifteen minutes without re-entering the password. Further, the passwords required for purchases of in-game currency are the same passwords required for any Apple purchases, and any children aware of such password may make in-app purchases without parental authorization.

Apple offers thousands of apps targeted at children, and many of these gaming apps are offered for free. However, these games are often designed to encourage children to purchase in-app purchases like virtual supplies, ammunition, fruits and vegetables, cash and other fake currency that are necessary to play the game with any success. Apple's practice of selling in-app content to children, and making millions of dollars in the process, has attracted the attention of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). While this new scrutiny prompted Apple to require a password for all individual transactions in early 2011, they continue to sell and profit off of in-app content to children.

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