Federal Court okays Class Action Suit against Apple

[gunug]

QUOTE

"An iPhone-owner whose daughter downloaded $200 worth of 'Zombie Toxin' and 'Gems' through in-app purchases on his iPhone has been allowed to pursue a class action suit against Apple for compensation of up to $5m. Garen Meguerian of Pennsylvania launched the class-action case against Apple in April 2011 after he discovered that his nine-year-old daughter had been draining his credit card account through in-app purchases on 'free' games including Zombie Cafe and Treasure Story.

http://apple.slashdot.org/story/12/04/18/2...n-app-purchases

While this sounds like a big deal about nothing there are problems with associating a credit line with a phone or other device!  We have Kindles in one or more of our locations that somehow retain wireless access and account information when the teachers swear they're deleting them!

[Paddy]

I find myself having little sympathy for people who do stuff like hand their kids an iPhone and then get all upset and try to blame others for what the kids may have done with it that ended up costing the parent money. Either supervise them, or accept that you've handed them a way to spend your money if you're not careful.

You can easily disable in-app purchases. http://www.cultofmac.com/72481/how-to-disa...-app-purchases/

iPhones are sold to adults - adults who presumably can read the manual and should not just assume that the phone is "kid proof" (or stupid adult-proof!). I actually don't see how this case has been allowed to go forward, given that there ARE controls and this parent simply didn't enable them before handing his child his iPhone. Would this same person hand his 9-year-old the keys to the car so she could "play" in the car? (oh, gee...I had no idea she'd actually start it and roll it down the driveway and over the next door neighbour...)

Apple has also responded to complaints and improved the authentication procedures for iTunes and in-app purchases, eliminating the 15 minute window when the PW would remain active and not need to be re-entered. And if you hand your 9-year-old your PW, you have nobody to blame but yourself.

[Xairbusdriver]

I think most places big enough to employ an attorney will have a statement (EULA?) that speaks to the use of a site by under-age (often less than 18 year olds) and their parents CC. They usually claim not to knowingly allow these kinds of uses/purchases and deny any responsibility for them. Seems parents are just like most people, they don't want to take responsibility for their own actions. Hope this family has better controls on any weapons in the house!