Post by Dan @ 08:57am 19/09/12 | 13 Comments
"We need to have a revamp of Australian consumer laws so that these sorts of purchases will be covered by it," he said.Senator Xenophon will reportedly be proposing amendments to consumer law to combat the issue.
"Currently the law is ambiguous. It needs to be changed. Parents need real protection in relation to this.
"Having a two-tiered password system could be one way to ensure that the contract is not unfair and having an opt-in clause so the contract isn't struck down by the courts."
Apple says there are settings to restrict these purchases and they only need to be activated, and it is up to parents to safeguard their iTunes passwords.
But Senator Xenophon agrees with consumer groups that all devices should have the restrictions already turned on, so parents have to opt in to allow the in-app purchase function to operate.
Most gamers will know that this problem extends well beyond mobile gaming, with micro-transaction support free-to-play business models becoming more and more common throughout all platforms and genres.
Parents do certainly need to understand that giving their children their account passwords where a credit card is attached is much the same as giving them the credit card itself, but focusing on iTunes, which already does make several considerations to prevent this occurring, does seem to be a little misguided, as Apple and other big players do have a PR incentive to self-regulate.
However, there are certainly many unethically designed games out there now, particularly in the social-game space that could probably use a bit of a heavy hand. What do you think?
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Posted 09:17am 19/9/12
Posted 09:28am 19/9/12
A kid can't possibly spend money online without a parent purposefully enabling them.
Posted 09:32am 19/9/12
Posted 09:52am 19/9/12
I don't see how parents can complain about this, when really it's their own fault for letting the kid have access to the ability to buy in game s***.
How would having a two tier password be any different to now? The kid has one password, then finds out the next password and we're back to square one. Silly.
Posted 10:08am 19/9/12
Posted 10:13am 19/9/12
On my phone I need to password for anything I do on the Store.
However, I haven't checked for a while, but at least in previous versions iPhones were significantly exposed to unauthorised transactions because the App Store remembered your authorisation for 5-10 minutes and didn't ask again.
I THINK that following a few incidents they removed this for in-app purchases but I can't be sure. For safety's sake we put the phone on top of the fridge after doing buying anything with the app store for half an hour or so, which is really f*****g stupid when you've just bought the kids a $2 game and you have to pretend the thing is installing for 30 minutes.
Posted 10:17am 19/9/12
Simple parenting says, don't leave your CC details within the phone and don't opt in for any of that pay using your phone bill s***.
Also, as a parent, I'm totally insulted by Xenophon trying to waste money pushing laws that aren't needed, implying that I'm too retarded to parent my own children.
Posted 10:42am 19/9/12
Posted 11:45am 19/9/12
Posted 11:47am 19/9/12
Posted 11:52am 19/9/12
I was laughin my ass off when that blonde was talking about how she has heard of peoples children racking up a 1500$ bill on downloads.
Posted 05:42pm 19/9/12
Plans nowdays are at least a little more transparent about this sort of thing, but for average untechy Joe buying a phone they are still a bit of a mine field and it's easy to let something like "billing" go through, particularly if a sales person suggest to them it's a good idea for "x" reason.
Newer phones/services though are much more security conscious in that regard. You have to remember not everyone is running around with the latest iPhone or Android device with top level security. So when you look at it, little johnny picking up grandma's phone while she is away doing something else and then blowing her data cap very quickly isn't really that implausible and I imagine occurs often enough. Yeah you could argue that grandma should of locked her phone, placed it behind bulletproof glass or whatever, but lets face it it's not always going to work out that way - crap happens.
While these media reports are always about the nth degree, it is more about those people who aren't all tech savvy and who do get caught out on things such as download limits and bill shock occuring etc..
More protection for the consumer is generally a good thing, especially when the Telco's are the last to say, "oh yeah that's cool pops, just pay us your usual $30 a month and don't worry about the other 800 we know it's a mistake!"
As long as any new consumer protection measures does not become an all encumbering thing that the tech savvy user has to wade through as well to the detriment of all. Though to be honest, the way mobile phone contracts, terms and conditions are presented need to be made more transparent and accessible for the general end user and not Mr iApple who knows more about his phone than about his life.
Posted 05:49pm 19/9/12