“Look at that, how calm and happy…” thought a mother of a 6-year-old boy, thinking with admiration. Conetica, United Statesbefore he found out that he spent a total of $16,000 on an iPad game. Let’s hope he wins the game at least…

A 6-year-old boy named George had a whole day. $16,000 in-game purchases Sonic Forces from the App Store. An endless runner where players control the dizzying – so to speak – blue hedgehog from the SEGA video game saga.

jessica johnsonhis mother spoke to “Good Morning America” ​​to explain how it all happened.

Spends over $16,000 to buy a ring in Sonic Forces

Specifically, George spent the total $16,293 and 10 cents With in-app purchases on the App Store at Sonic Forces for iPad, you’ll probably get loads of rings that will allow you to run and dodge obstacles in multiplayer mode. Or maybe to customize your character, who knows.

According to his mother, PayPal account linked to iPad. The device was password protected. However, there is an option in iPad Settings that ensures that you don’t have to retype your password after making a purchase.

“As a mother of very young children, I thought it was important for other parents to be aware of this. It’s a shame because we were all in the time of the pandemic, we were all working from home. And we were struggling to keep our kids at home. We had fun while we finished our work.”

George Wilton’s mother used to give her iPad to her son several times in good faith and say, “Here, take the iPad.” It would be better to buy the child a spinning top!

Jessica Johnson noticed her appearance while reviewing her accounts. Same fee of $106.34 to be repeated up to 12 times followed by other additional fees ranging from $200 to $600.

He immediately contacted the bank regarding this activity, and the bank informed him that it was responsible for these costs and should contact Apple. Luckily they have the world’s best customer service from Apple and they fixed the problem.

Apple has confirmed to Jessica Johnson that they will be able to reimburse any expenses the company has been able to identify. $10,553.

“We understand that mistakes can happen, and we work with our customers to research and inform the tools available to protect them.”

The boy’s mother said she had a password set on her iPad, but she had no idea what it was. there was an App Store settings setting that allowed you to make purchases without entering your password for a certain period of time after using it before.

“I didn’t know there was a setting where a child could continue shopping without a password after a certain amount of time. There are a few settings I’m learning now.”

It’s true that there is a configuration setting in the App Store that lets you protect purchases with a password. But in favor of the child’s mother, we must say that this function is not as visible as it should be. A little secret. not found in Settings > App Store but in Settings > “Apple ID name” > Content & purchases > Password settings.

configuration settings

It is possible to make the App Store from here always ask for the password or after 15 minutes. This last option in Settings means that if you entered the password within the last 15 minutes, the App Store will not ask you for the password again.

On the other hand, there are multiple parental control functions for iPad today, with which it is possible to restrict access to certain apps, prohibit in-app purchases, block web pages, and even set a specific time for an app to be used.

Jessica took advantage of the situation to denounce the behavior of some mobile games.

“It was deliberately designed to be the same brain chemical experience an adult would have in a casino.”

And the poor lady is not without reason. Finally got a little lost $5,500 just because his 6 year old wants to keep playing and playing. Sometimes such games are really addictive, that’s where their fun lies.

Fortunately, your son is very sensitive and very sweet. He apologized to his mother and promised not to do it again. As time passes this will stay inside just an anecdote Your child will have learned a valuable lesson… you can get free rings by watching ads!