Google Sued Over Children's In-App Purchases

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A mother from New York, that coincidentally also happens to be an attorney, has filed suit against Google over the lack of safeguards to prevent in-app purchases by children.

Ilana Imber-Gluck, who lives with her 4- and 5 year-old sons in New York, is the one named plaintiff in the suit. The complaint alleges Imber-Gluck incurred $65.95 in charges from the Google Play store for unauthorized purchases her children made playing the game Marvel Run Jump Smash! on her Samsung Galaxy tablet.
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Apple was sued for the same thing. They now have a giant pop-up in iOS 7.1 that says you just did an IAP. For the next 15 minutes you can make purchases without a password. If you want to change that to the settings.

Google will follow suit and change their policies as well.

That said it's dumb that Apple and Google are getting slapped for something that a parent needs to deal with and take responsibility for. The first thing I do with a new device is lock down purchases so they require passwords. The wife and I have a 2 year old that plays with our tablet and with her phone (much to my chagrin). I don't need him buying a pile of junk accidentally.
 
Hopefully someone does the same for amazon and their 1 click BS that you cannot turn off on the PC.
 
Class action of course.. you mean Google doesn't have a TOS agreement that says users may not use class action suits against them?
 
There is a feature that I believe is default, that asks for your password for every purchase. It is even in an easy to access place. In the Play Store app settings
 
Whatever happened to personal responsibility and good parenting?

1. She let her kids use her tablet
2. She stored her credit card info on her google account which Google does not require.
3. Google already provides instructions on how to prevent this.
https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/1626831?hl=en
4. The suit names children specifically. If this had been an issue where a criminal could hack your account or a legit customer could be mistakenly charged fraudulently, then it might have more merit.
The complaint filed against Google last week says its gaming apps are "highly addictive, designed deliberately so, and tend to compel children playing them to purchase large quantities of game currency," and it states that the company collected millions of dollars by acting "with the intent to lure minors to purchase game currency in a manner likely to deceive the public."
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CaptNumbNutz said:
Whatever happened to personal responsibility and good parenting?

1. She let her kids use her tablet
2. She stored her credit card info on her google account which Google does not require.
3. Google already provides instructions on how to prevent this.
https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/1626831?hl=en
4. The suit names children specifically. If this had been an issue where a criminal could hack your account or a legit customer could be mistakenly charged fraudulently, then it might have more merit.
Click to expand...

Quiet you! Facts are not allowed in here!
 
Do you think a 5 year old kid should be allowed to walk into a retail store with mummy's credit card and charge stuff to it? What about google's responsibility to its customers?
 
maverikv said:
Do you think a 5 year old kid should be allowed to walk into a retail store with mummy's credit card and charge stuff to it? What about google's responsibility to its customers?
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I don't know how it works, as I never used it to buy anything. But wouldn't this be akin to the mom having a form that the retail store wrote up and the mother signed that says that the kid can use the card?
 
I just can't fathom that people can sue for this, just don't give your kid something that has that capability problem solved.
 
issue an app called be responsible and be a good parent and stop waiting for society to do everything for you. Call it i-Accountability
 
maverikv said:
Do you think a 5 year old kid should be allowed to walk into a retail store with mummy's credit card and charge stuff to it? What about google's responsibility to its customers?
Click to expand...

You've never worked retail, have you?

This is a common thing. If it doesn't require a signature, who gives a shit? The cashier isn't fraud prevention. How are they to know whether the kid has permission to use it or not?

When I was growing up, my Pop would let me use his card to go pick things up if I needed, and even kept a spare in the house so I could use it if there was an emergency.
He would purchase things for me online when I had earned the money for them, and the payment information was saved to a user account I could log into.

You know what I didn't do? Take it and buy shit, because he TAUGHT ME NOT TO.

Where is the parental responsibility today?
 
If I had done something similar, I would have had my phone/tablet/whatever privileges taken away, and have pay the money back. This teaches personal responsibility, and consequences for ones actions. I would have learned not to mindlessly make purchases, and become a more responsible member of society.

In this instance, the child is being taught that it's not their fault that they racked up those charges, and there is no consequences for their actions. They are being taught to pass the blame, and not take responsibility for ones actions. "Parenting" like this is going to raise yet another 'victim' of society that blames all of their troubles on everyone but themselves.
 
CaptNumbNutz said:
Whatever happened to personal responsibility and good parenting?

1. She let her kids use her tablet
2. She stored her credit card info on her google account which Google does not require.
3. Google already provides instructions on how to prevent this.
https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/1626831?hl=en
4. The suit names children specifically. If this had been an issue where a criminal could hack your account or a legit customer could be mistakenly charged fraudulently, then it might have more merit.
Click to expand...

Number 2 and 3 will cause her to lose. Google doesn't make you have a Credit Card on your account. Also Google makes you enter your password to approve the in app purchases. If you know the password you can click a option to say never ask again but you have to enter the password once for this to work.
 
WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot said:
Yeah, 1-click is purely an optional feature that you have to opt-in to...
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No its not really optional as the last time I talked to them the only way to get rid of it was to remove the credit card and have to reenter it for every purchase.
 
Dumb hoe should have had her password setup to prevent any app purchase that is not free from being made.
 
My 5 year old always seems to inadvertently delete my home screen widgets. I should also sue Google.
 
I made my first IAP yesterday - removed ads from a game I play a lot. I had already stored my CC info but still had to enter my password before purchasing. There is a tickbox to not require the password in the future but I did not check it.

Sp basically she ticked the box to not require her password anymore then handed the device and game with IAPs to her kid. She should be held responsible for this.
 
maverikv said:
Do you think a 5 year old kid should be allowed to walk into a retail store with mummy's credit card and charge stuff to it? What about google's responsibility to its customers?
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure that's illegal in the first place.

Onus is on the mom, not Google. Google Play requires you to check a box saying that you don't want to be asked for your password for purchases after buying something for the first time.

Unattentive parenting has consequences.
 
So she thought it would be easier to sue a multi-billion dollar company over $65.95 rather than be a decent worthwhile parent and teach something about personal responsibility to her kids? Yay, America!
 
CaptNumbNutz said:
Whatever happened to personal responsibility and good parenting?
Click to expand...
Oh, hadn't you heard? It Takes A Village To Raise A Child, so there is no more Personal Responsibility. It's All Society's Fault and Someone Else's Problem, don'chaknow. We have to be Protected From Ourselves.
 
CaptNumbNutz said:
Whatever happened to personal responsibility and good parenting?

1. She let her kids use her tablet
2. She stored her credit card info on her google account which Google does not require.
3. Google already provides instructions on how to prevent this.
https://support.google.com/googleplay/answer/1626831?hl=en
4. The suit names children specifically. If this had been an issue where a criminal could hack your account or a legit customer could be mistakenly charged fraudulently, then it might have more merit.
Click to expand...


Heaven forbid someone takes responsibility for their parenting skills...
 
FighterAce124 said:
When I was growing up, my Pop would let me use his card to go pick things up if I needed, and even kept a spare in the house so I could use it if there was an emergency.
He would purchase things for me online when I had earned the money for them, and the payment information was saved to a user account I could log into.

You know what I didn't do? Take it and buy shit, because he TAUGHT ME NOT TO.

Where is the parental responsibility today?
Click to expand...


My parents were the exact same way. Its too bad that woman was too busy being a Lawyer and couldn't teach her children. I wonder if she can get sued for something like that?
 
I don't know the specifics of what exactly happened but I can tell you that even for adults it is often way to easy to buy stuff with phones. There is a big difference between giving a kid cash or a credit card and them knowing what they are doing and having a very young child handle a phone and possibly accidentally buy a lot of stuff without even understanding that.

Think of it more like imagine if you are in a store and the store will just let your 4 year old kids walk out with product. Not even try to stop them, then send you a bill later for it and you didn't even know it happened. When you say why didn't you stop they said oh well our store has a policy that if you bought anything in the store for the next 30 minutes anyone in your family can walk out with anything and we will just bill you later.

We don't know how old these kids are. We don't know a lot of things. IMO by default on every device a password should be required for every real money purchase. When I feel my child is ready for the responsibility I will give them the password. And any ability to skip passwords or reduce them to a PIN should be a setting you must go and enable, no that doesn't mean it automatically asks you if you want to do that and the box is checked on by default or it forces you to choose yes or no. It must be something you go dig into the settings menu to find.

Honestly I have been using android phones for a long time and I typically have to enter the password once, when I get a new phone and almost never have to enter it again. I don't buy a ton of apps so maybe I just don't see it. In fact just for shits I went and looked at an app on my galaxy note 3, mind you I have never explicitely told my phone it can charge without a password. And I easily got all the way to the point where it said BUY and never saw a password. So tell me does it come up after that asking me for a password?
 
Amazon Kindles have a "Free Time" Mode for kids. And it pretty much locks them out of doing anything outside of the authroized apps. Amazon was ahead of the game.
 
rudy said:
I don't know the specifics of what exactly happened but I can tell you that even for adults it is often way to easy to buy stuff with phones. There is a big difference between giving a kid cash or a credit card and them knowing what they are doing and having a very young child handle a phone and possibly accidentally buy a lot of stuff without even understanding that.

Think of it more like imagine if you are in a store and the store will just let your 4 year old kids walk out with product. Not even try to stop them, then send you a bill later for it and you didn't even know it happened. When you say why didn't you stop they said oh well our store has a policy that if you bought anything in the store for the next 30 minutes anyone in your family can walk out with anything and we will just bill you later.

We don't know how old these kids are. We don't know a lot of things. IMO by default on every device a password should be required for every real money purchase. When I feel my child is ready for the responsibility I will give them the password. And any ability to skip passwords or reduce them to a PIN should be a setting you must go and enable, no that doesn't mean it automatically asks you if you want to do that and the box is checked on by default or it forces you to choose yes or no. It must be something you go dig into the settings menu to find.

Honestly I have been using android phones for a long time and I typically have to enter the password once, when I get a new phone and almost never have to enter it again. I don't buy a ton of apps so maybe I just don't see it. In fact just for shits I went and looked at an app on my galaxy note 3, mind you I have never explicitely told my phone it can charge without a password. And I easily got all the way to the point where it said BUY and never saw a password. So tell me does it come up after that asking me for a password?
Click to expand...

Well you could always RTFA...just saying..

That said, she is specifically suing over games that target kids with microtransactions. If some of you bothered to read, that is in the opening paragraph of the lawsuit. Which of course makes her even more of a parasite as it isn't even about kids getting on the mobile devices and racking up charges. The suit mentions that a password is basically required to unlock purchases for a 30 minute window and that there is no restrictions after that. So basically she admits the rules are in place, she is just a gold digger looking for an easy pay day hoping google will find that cheaper than simply fighting her.
 
Based on her photos, she must have the mentality of a 15-year-old. I also like how her timeline/profile photo looks nothing like her real self.
 
Angry said:
Amazon Kindles have a "Free Time" Mode for kids. And it pretty much locks them out of doing anything outside of the authroized apps. Amazon was ahead of the game.
Click to expand...

Yet they do not provide anything like that for their website. Great Amazon reserves that for their tablet with the industries worst interface and tries to force you to buy that. How does that help the majority of their customers who do not use the kindle. And even the ones who do use kindle still use their services on other devices.
 
The new version of the Play Store app (pushing out slowly now) now has an option to require a password for every purchase. Still don't understand how Google (or Apple) is responsible for this idiot parents who don't actually raise their kids.
 
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