Apple’s App Store in-app purchases has been a great source of revenue for developers. Sometimes more so for developers of apps for kids than others.
The reason behind this skew is to do with how App Store’s requirement for password when you try to purchase something on your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad.
Previously, if you made any change with your apps like deleting, updating or purchasing apps you would be prompted for a password. But you can continue purchasing apps and make in-app purchases without entering a password for 15 minutes.
This was enabling kids to inadvertently making purchases like the $99 Smurfberry in-app purchases in apps like Smurfs’ Village. Some parents were ending up with surprise iTunes bills due to these purchases. Just look at the popular in-app purchases for this app!
Apple has addressed this issue in their latest iOS 4.3 firmware release by prompting for a password with in-app purchases as well. Washington Post reports
“We are proud to have industry-leading parental controls with iOS,” said Trudy Muller, a spokeswoman for Apple. She said users have always been able to use parental control setting and restrictions of in-app purchases to protect their iTunes accounts from accidental charges. “With iOS 4.3, in addition to a password being required to purchase an app on the App Store, a reentry of your password is now required when making an in-app purchase.”
It looks like this move by Apple might have been prompted by some State and Federal law enforcements looking into this in various states.
With the new change, you will be prompted for a password for downloading an app. And if you try to make an in-app purchase you will be prompted for a password again. But, this will stay active for 15 minutes since the assumption is you intentionally wanted to make that in-app purchase and it could get annoying to enter a password every time.
This might not be the perfect salvo, but parents can breathe a little easier when handing over their iPhone, iPod Touch or the Apple iPad to their kids.
Note: This feature is available only in iOS 4.3 which doesn’t support iPhone 3G or older.
