12/1 Second topic;Five-year old child spends £1,700 on iPad game

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 Five-year old child spends £1,700 on iPad game

A five-year old boy from England, UK, accidentally spent £1,700 ($2,550) playing an iPad game. Danny Kitchen, from Bristol, told his parents that he wanted to download a free game called Zombies v Ninja on the iPad, but they initially said no. However, after he kept asking, Danny’s parents had a look at the game and decided to allow him to download it. Greg Kitchen, who is Danny’s father, entered the password into the iPad and gave it back to his son. While the game was free to download, it had an option that allows players to pay for and download “in-app” purchases, which is how the creators of the game make money. Some of the in-app downloads cost as much as £70 ($105) each time, and Danny ended up buying multiple items.

Mr and Mrs Kitchen didn’t realise what Danny had done at first, however the next day, Mrs Kitchen’s credit card company called to ask her whether there had been any unauthorised payments. The Kitchens contacted Apple, who looked into the situation. Apple agreed that the transactions had not been authorised and refunded the full amount. When Apple users enter their App Store password, anybody with access to the device can download content for the next 15 minutes without needing to enter the password again. According to the Kitchens, Danny was able to spend the entire £1,700 within the 15-minute period.

In a similar story, an International rugby player’s two sons also managed to spend around £3,200 ($4,800) on an iPad game over a three-hour period. Sam Vesty, who has played rugby for England, said his two sons, aged six and eight, spent the money playing a game called Tiny Monsters. In this case, Mr Vesty said that his sons had memorised the password which meant they were able to buy things from the App Store whenever they wanted without Mr Vesty’s knowledge. Mr Vesty sent a tweet about the incident, and the creators of the game sent a response asking Mr Vesty to contact them. Mr Vesty also received a full refund once the makers of Tiny Monsters realised the downloads were unauthorised.

1. Do you own smart phone or tablet pc? Why do you have it and how could you get?

2. How often do you download apps for your phone / tablet?

3. Do you think parents should be able to get a refund when children spend money on their accounts? Why?

4. Are young children becoming too used to technology at an early age?

5. Is it a good thing or bad thing that children are able to use technology so easily? Why?

6. Nowadays, children are spending more time playing computer games and spending less time playing together which has an impact on their social development. Why do you think children are spending less time playing together?

7. Is it important for children to play with each other? Why?

8. What positive effects do smartphones have on our lives? How about negative effects?

Five-year old child spends £1,700 on iPad game.doc

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