If you don’t know by now, you should. Especially with Sims FreePlay coming out next month. What should you know? That those game are NOT actually free. Just like Sims Social and other Facebook games, you eventually have to spend REAL MONEY. This is why these games are NOT for kids… Especially kids that have not yet learned to read. Parental controls to block in-app/in-game purchases are a must. Why? Because you do NOT wanna be like a parent in Florida who’s kid got them a $500 bill!!! Evil’s afoot! But with EA, isn’t it always? 😀
Elizabeth Le Van is just 5 years old. She loves playing Smurf Village on her iPhone, but she had no idea how much this video game was costing her parents.
“They told me that I spent a lot of money,” she said.
At first, Thien Le Van blamed his wife Lisa, who helped their daughter download the game.
“For that moment, I was upset, and some words we can’t repeat. And I said do you realize what you purchased? What are you buying for her? Do you know what she’s buying? What is this game that you’re buying? And she’s like I don’t know, I order this free game. It said it was free. So that’s when I really got upset and I said, well it’s not free.”
Omg $500
A family in Sweden ended up with a Smurfville-bill of about 50000 SEK (~7200 USD). The mechanism might have changed since, but some in-app purchases do not ask for a password.
I am sorry, but age is but a number! MATURITY and UNDERSTANDING is what matters. This 5 year old is average and shouldn’t play, but I bet you there are some bright 5 year olds who understand it!
I’m sorry to say this but if you’re stupid enough to buy an iphone for a five year old then you deserve this kind of karmic throwback 😆
$500 ???
They probably let the kid play with the iPad or iPhone. Heck, with iPad it’s reasonable. There isn’t that much else you can do conveniently on it.
Correction: their. Odds are they didn’t buy the iPhone for the five-year-old.