Apple to refund $32.5m to those whose kids bought in-app purchases

[Administrator]

Every so often we hear another story of a parent whose kid racked up an unreasonably high bill on their mobile. Like that one kid who bought £1700 worth of bonuses in Pirates vs Ninjas. Of course not all stories of this nature are quite that dramatic. It's usually a few quid there and another there, but it's cumulatively added up to upwards of $32.5m (£19.9m) in reported cases and Apple's going to have to pay it all back following a settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
As reported by the BBC, the FTC noted that Apple had received at "least tens of thousands of complaints" about unauthorised in-app purchases by children.
The ordeal has encouraged Apple to change how in-app purchases are made. Starting shortly, it will require a password to be typed in every time a purchase is made. Currently, when a parent enters their password it unlocks the phone's ability to make purchases password-free for 15 minutes - long enough for some a mischievous little moppet to spend quite a lot of mommy's money.
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