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| © Glenn Harvey |
By BRIAN X. CHEN, The New York Times
Is your child a “whale”?
A teenager once spent $6,500 on Facebook games over two weeks, according to a recent report
by the Center for Investigative Reporting. Some Facebook employees
internally referred to these children as “whales,” a term typically used
by casinos to describe the highest of high rollers.
The report follows actions by the Federal Trade Commission five years ago that required Apple and Google
to issue millions of dollars in refunds to parents whose children made
unauthorized in-app charges. In 2017, the F.T.C. made a similar arrangement with Amazon.
At
the heart of all of this are mobile games that persuade children — who
are the most vulnerable — to buy virtual goods using their parents’
credit card accounts while they are playing. It has become such an issue
that these games have been called “bait apps” in class-action lawsuits.
So what can adults do to prevent their children from falling prey to bait apps and running up their credit card bills?
Unfortunately,
preventing unwanted in-app purchases is far from straightforward. Many
young ones are clever about finding workarounds when they are blocked.
And tech companies typically don’t have much incentive to invest in
safeguards because these purchases generate revenue.
Jim Steyer,
who runs the nonprofit Common Sense Media, said fighting bait apps is
often confusing. Even though his group reviews tech products for
families and suggests limits on tech, he himself often has to call tech
companies to reverse charges made by his 14-year-old son inside apps
like Fortnite, the popular shooter game.
“It’s
incumbent on the tech companies who are selling you these apps and
games to make it much easier for parents,” Mr. Steyer said. “I think
it’s really unfair to assume that the average parent is tech savvy.”
To
come up with some solutions, I gathered many gadgets in my household —
including devices from Apple, Google and Amazon — to devise a guide to
fighting bait apps. Here’s what you should know.
Apple
Let’s
start with Apple, the maker of many of our devices and a purveyor of
mobile games through its App Store. It offers several effective tools
for restricting in-app payments on iPhones, iPads and the iPod Touch.
One
is Ask to Buy, a set of controls that requires a parent to approve each
app purchase on a child’s device. It can be set up with the following steps:
■
A parent first sets up a family sharing account, by going into the
settings app, selecting “set up family sharing” and following the
instructions.
■ The parent then sends an invitation to the child’s
Apple device to join the family account. (If the child doesn’t have an
Apple ID, the parent can create one and add it to the family group.)
■
Then, the parent goes into the family sharing settings, selects the
child’s account and turns on Ask to Buy. It notifies the parent’s device
whenever the child tries to buy an app or something inside an app. The
parent can approve or reject the purchases.
You can also disable in-app payments on Apple devices altogether. Here’s how:
■ On the child’s device settings, choose “screen time” and select “this is my child’s iPhone.”
■ Set a secret passcode and then tap “content & privacy restrictions.” From here, tap “iTunes & App Store purchases.”
■ Then choose “in-app purchases” and select “don’t allow.”
An
Apple spokeswoman said the company designed the controls to “provide
families easy ways to stay informed about kids’ screen time, set
appropriate limits and approve their downloads and purchases.”
Google’s
tool for managing a child’s app purchases on Android devices is
incomplete compared with Apple’s. Google offers a parental control tool
called Family Link, which includes a setting for requiring parental
approval for app purchases. But children can choose to leave Family Link
once they turn 13 and remove the restrictions — a limitation I have criticized in the past.
While
I do not recommend Family Link for managing a child’s app purchases,
here’s an alternative method that is more reliable for regulating in-app
payments on Android devices:
■ On your child’s Android device,
set a password for the Google account that is used for making purchases
from Google Play, which is the Android app store.
■ Open the
Google Play Store app on the child’s device. Tap the hamburger menu (an
icon with three lines) and scroll down to settings.
■ Tap on the “require authentication for purchases” option. Then select “all purchases.”
With
this setting turned on, you will have to enter your password whenever
the child tries to buy an app or goods inside an app. As long as you set
a strong password and keep it secret, the child should not be able to
make purchases.
This solution is imperfect because the child will
need to use a separate Google account and password for unrelated tasks,
like email, but it is more reliable than Family Link because the
restriction won’t expire when the child turns 13. Google declined to
comment.
The process for blocking in-app payments on Facebook is the most lacking and the most confusing, I found.
That’s
because people can make purchases in games on the social network and on
its family of apps — which include Facebook Messenger — in a dizzying
variety of ways. Children can spend in games loaded inside Facebook’s
mobile apps, which include Facebook and Facebook Messenger, or on a
computer using Facebook.com.
That means if your children are
racking up charges inside Facebook’s iPhone apps, the aforementioned
Apple tools will help. If they are spending inside Facebook’s Android
apps, the Google solution above might stop them. But if they are buying
things inside games on the Facebook website on a computer, there is no
direct tool to prevent payments. The best you can do is to go into your
child’s Facebook account and remove your payment method from it.
In
other words, if a minor failed to buy something inside a game using a
Facebook mobile app, he or she could go on a computer and use the
website to make the purchase, so long as your credit card was handy.
This is a glaring loophole. When I called Facebook about it, a spokeswoman pointed me to its Parents Portal, which includes guidelines on how parents can talk to their children about how they use the web.
Facebook
does have a process for disputing charges and requesting refunds, in
the games support section of Facebook. When you visit the web tool, select “process a refund,” click “purchase made by someone under 18 years old” and then choose the unauthorized game.
Amazon
Amazon
offers games for its Fire tablets along with a range of controls for
restricting app payments on those devices, which require a password to
make purchases. It also offers Amazon FreeTime, which automatically
blocks minors from content inside its app store.
Here’s how the parental controls work:
■ On the tablet, open the Amazon Appstore app.
■ From there, select “account” and then tap “settings.”
■
Then tap “parental controls” and select “enable parental controls.”
With this setting turned on, the Amazon account password will be
required to make in-app purchases.
And here’s how to set up FreeTime:
■ Swipe down from the top of the screen and select “settings,” and then tap “profiles & family library.”
■ Choose “add a child profile” and create a lock-screen PIN, which your child will not have access to.
■
From the “add child profile” screen, select “choose a profile picture”
to add a profile picture. Enter your child’s name, birth date and
gender.
■ From here, you can choose “use Amazon FreeTime,” which
is suited for children, or “use teen profiles,” which has an aesthetic
more suited for teenagers. (Either one will automatically block in-app
purchases.)
■ Tap “add profile” and choose the content you want available on the child’s profile. Then tap “done.”
Fortnite
Fortnite
is an important example of an app that is widely available across many
devices. It is popular with children, who want to spend inside the game
to buy different items like outfits to make their Fortnite characters
look unique.
The problem is that even if you prevent your children
from buying virtual items inside Fortnite on an iPhone, they might make
the purchases elsewhere, like on a PlayStation, Xbox or Nintendo
console.
To prevent that, you will have to be thorough. Assess
which products are in your home, and then set up the parental controls
for each device, like the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 or Xbox One.
A
spokesman for Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, declined to comment,
pointing to the parental controls offered by device makers. Users can
also request refunds for unauthorized Fortnite purchases on the company’s website.
If tech fails, then what?
So
here’s what I learned: Fighting bait apps is a lot of work. But when
tech fails, parents can always turn to a free tool: disciplining and
educating their children.
Mr. Steyer of Common Sense Media said he
eventually had to teach his teenage son a lesson for his Fortnite
splurging. How? He took the game console away.
“It does give you a
teachable moment to sit down with your kid and talk about being
responsible financially, and that you don’t have my permission to spend
the money,” he said.
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