Kid Spends $2,000 on "Free" App, Is Apple Cheating the Public? [Poll]

In December of 2011, an English boy named Jack Drager spent four days racking up an enormous debt while buying digital animals on his parents iPad. The final tally was 1,300 pounds or approximately 2,084 dollars all spent on the app Tap Zoo. Tears flowed when Mom and Dad found out about the spending, but things turned out all right. In the end, Jack got some free animals because Apple agreed to refund the bill. Apple also changed its policy and now forces players to input a password while making in-app purchases.

Now, it appears that adding a password wasn’t enough. A group of parents in San Jose, California have joined in a class action lawsuit against Apple.  The lawsuit is over more in-app spending, but this time the problem is the password itself. Apparently, the password is only needed every 15 minutes and little Johnnie and Suzy are spending money much faster than that. The parents are particularly upset by the “free” apps that their kids find ways to spend money in. Around 65% of app store income is generated by free games like Smurf’s Village and Tiny Tower which have no upfront cost, but charge for upgrades inside the games. Apple, of course, wanted the San Jose case dismissed, but the Judge has denied the dismissal and will hear the case. Before it’s all decided, we want to hear what you think.

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