Federal Trade Commission is reviewing Apple's in-app purchase system

As someone who was caught by this I'd like to say that I had NEVER seen a reference to the 15 minute password rule when we were stung.
Basically, for those who tell me its bad parenting we would have to
1. have known that this was an issue
2. bought a game for the kids and then told them to wait 15 minutes before they could play (yeah right)
3. probably end up looking over their shoulders at all they are doing, this defeats 2 things I like about the iOS. 1. that it really teaches little kids about computing by doing which would be useless if we were over the shoulder spoon-feeding and 2. it is a great relaxation tool for the kids, they need to play too

We keep our kids computer time very controlled and at this point had never been stung on online "scams" because we believed we had been good parents.
This is NOT a bad parenting issue, this is a poor architecture issue. This is a design that a windoze programmer would instigate. The design that DJR suggested
"All we need is a setting "Require password for all purchases above $x.xx." Set it at $0.99 by default and let people change it if they get annoyed by persistent password requests. "
it more like the way we expect Apple to design their user interfaces and would be a much better way forward.
I have personally instigated the no credit card, use store cards only approach and while it is a pain, it is the only protection I really have in this situation. Thus being a "good parent" has made my iOS experience much less than it should be.
The bad parenting trolls should realise that they talk from their ivory towers of far reaching and inane systems knowledge whilst the average person living in the real world is the one being scammed.

I've known people who are far from bad parents who have been bit by this bug. And I've lent my phone to little kids and been astonished when I got it back to see how savvy they are (I swear computer use has become genetically encoded in the race) about how to get to what they want.

Let's not fool ourselves as to why developers are allowing $100-at-a-time purchases of Smurfberries and the like. They're trying to profit from carelessness. And since Apple has proven quite, quite willing to insert themselves into every aspect of the user's interaction with the phone, there's no reason they shouldn't intervene on this issue, too.

So, yes, by all means, parents should take every precaution to prevent their kids from racking up giant bills, but l've said it before: there's a simple solution on this one. All we need is a setting "Require password for all purchases above $x.xx." Set it at $0.99 by default and let people change it if they get annoyed by persistent password requests. Then, if parents let their kids rack up 1,000 bills 99 cents at a time, it's definitely on them for not paying attention. But anybody can turn their head for a moment assuming junior is immersed in "Cut the Rope" and get unpleasantly surprised.

I like the gift card idea too, as a safety strategy.

Kids always have an advantage on tech stuff and parents don't get half of it, making them easy to fool.

When modems came around I racked up some nice phone bills so my parents moved the computer upstairs away from the phone socket.. My solution was slide new phone wire all the way through the existing electrical conduits, only plugging the whole thing at night when they went to bed. Bills went down a bit but never too much (no itemized billing at that time either) Actually maybe that's why I became a network engineer :-))

But back to the topic, definitely understand the parents on this one and hope Apple introduces some soft limit of some kind.

Are these games meaningfully different from the "I am Rich" app?

Of course people have the right to spend money stupidly or let their kids do so, but why is Apple, which has decided to maintain tight control over these things, letting these apps allow this to happen?

This whole "it's the parents' fault" vs. "It's Apple's fault" is a false dichotomy.

It can be one, the other, or both depending on the case.

If a parent lets kids know the password, and links to a card, then yes, they're negligent and at fault, or at least grossly ignorant.

But Apple could, with probably minimal effort, provide more options to parents as to how to restrict purchases, particularly by giving parents control over that 15 minute window. But they could also allow people to set an iTunes account purchase limit, which wouldn't even necessitate changes to iOS.

Parents who don't take advantage of available protections are at fault, but so is a company that could provide more options for protection but chooses not to even when made aware of the issue.

We'll just have to wait until 4.3 to see what Apple has or has not chosen to provide.

The "Fishies" app is designed to lure you in and take your money. It looks like an innocent animated aquarium app for kids. The included tutorials teach the user to touch on pearls within the app. Pearls cost real dollars that get charged to your credit card. We learned our lesson the hard way. Fortunately, Apple quickly refunded around $300. The Playmesh developers are scammers and they know it.

@MattG: You're idiotic statements are exactly what's wrong with today's kids. It's not Apple job to babysit or cater to kids because their parents are too lazy to read a manual or learn more about the system they are handing over to their kids.

If you ask Apple to remove, for argument sake, a $500,000 in-app purchase, than Apple will be lambasted for restricting developers even more than they already do.

You react without thinking. It's the parents fault. Not Apples. It's the parent's job to take responsibility and not be lazy when it comes to handing kids passwords or not supervising them.

Case and point: My cousin received a new XBOX 360 for Christmas and parental controls were set up on the XBOX but the kids knew the password to their mommy's account because their mommy told them. The same happened with their own laptops.

Why do kids have so much freedom when it comes to computers and the internet... because their mommy's and daddy's allow it.

Seriously, though, it's bad parenting folks.

I tend to agree with "lazy parenting" view, but also have to admit that things have been moving rather quickly, in-app payments came out 2 years ago and still not talked about a lot.

I can see why some who don't read TUAW will have some difficulty keeping up.

Maybe the solution could be to require some extra authentication, e.g. last 4 digits of credit card, when monthly purchases exceeded some value like $50-$100...

This is an absurd issue. If Apple removes the 15 min window you can be sure that someone will complain that the child knew the password, entered it and made purchases without the parent's permission.

What if a child gets ahold of an iOS device and stays up all night playing games and is falling asleep in school the next day?

Maybe the FTC should ask Apple to provide a tuck in service for each household with iOS devices and kids.

Then someone would complain that the Apple tuck in reps were singing the wrong lullaby and confusing the kids.

The act of a child buying an app in and of itself doesn't inherently pose a physical threat of harm to a child (parental reactions aside). It should be the absolute responsibility of the parent not Apple.

Ed Markey must think that the people who elected him are blithering idiots! Of course if he is a true representative of his electorate maybe blithering idiocy comes naturally.

Sounds like bad/lazy parenting to me . . .