>Several months ago there was an incident where the parent discovered over $2500 in credit card charges mostly due to in game purchases.
This sounds more of a parenting issue. How and why did the kids have access to the credit card info?
This sounds more of a parenting issue. How and why did the kids have access to the credit card info?
I was going to write more details, but I don't feel comfortable recounting other people's personal details. I could anonymize it but that would make it sound contrived. As someone who's daily job is consulting and helping solve tough technical problems for non-technical clients, I feel for these parents being overwhelmed. I can see how the technology is not always on their side when considering the marketing towards their kids and the type of e-commerce dark patterns.
I concur. I work with ACLs and permissions on a daily basis, my wife doesn't. This affinity for permissions structures rears it's head when she is entirely frustrated when setting up whitelisting for my daughter's MS account.
Apple, for an example, has a "master" account which controls billing. All purchases made on any associated family account are routed through this master account.
My wife's purchases don't require approval, but all child accounts do.
Microsoft's account structuring is very similar.
This is often missed by technology enthusiasts that evaluate a merits of a platform from their own individual point of view that prizes flexibility and lack of constraints over everything else.