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Comment by blueben | Hacker News Reader

You're saying kids have to leave the house, go to the grocery store (good luck if you live in the suburbs), buy a gift card, go home, activate it, and then they can buy their app? Oh, and a bonus! They get to do it all over again next week to buy another few apps!

Homework: Go ask your parents (or grandparents) how they used to get money for the weekend. The answer is that they and 300 of their neighbors stood in line at the bank on Friday to withdraw cash. They'd have to plan the weekend before, grocery shopping, a trip to the movies, ice cream for the kids, gasoline, so they knew how much to withdraw. Ask Grandpa if he prefers that over swiping his debit card at any time of day on any day of the week.

It's not just about the ability to pay but the ability to pay with low friction.

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Well, it doesn’t get much more low friction than piracy, especially if you are thirteen-year-old with hardly any money. I was merely pointing out that “my parents won’t let me use their credit card” is a lousy excuse on all levels.

All I’m saying is that it’s ridiculously easy to get iTunes gift cards. (There are at least three stores which sell gift cards within easy biking distance from me, getting to a store which, for example, has a decent selection of music is quite a bit harder. Buying music was quite a bit harder when I was thirteen only ten years ago.) It’s perfectly safe and there is no need for a credit card. The excuses are invalid, the kids pirate apps not because it’s hard for them to buy them, they pirate them because they don’t want to pay anything. (Thirteen-year-olds, myself included, are like that – I can’t really say that I’m surprised.)

You've made an assertion with nothing to back it up. Thirteen year olds pirate because they don't want to pay? Please provide data and evidence to support your case.

You are funny.

I was responding specifically to the assertion that kids can’t legally download anything from the App Store if their parents are not willing to hand over their credit card. That’s patently untrue. It’s easy to get an account, it’s easy to pay.

Now, teenagers might pirate for other reasons than not wanting to pay (I don’t know what those would be), I can only guess. They are not in any way forced to pirate, though.

Presumably you read my first reply, in which case you do know "what those would be". Once again, it's about convenience.

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