[mcv]

I'm extremely reluctant to let my kids spend money on in-app purchases, and I'm extremely reluctant to do it myself. My youngest is currently begging for Robux, but he can't explain what he wants to spend them on. My oldest has his own allowance that he's free to spend how he likes, and a lot of it is going to purchasing various games, but the amount he can spend is very limited and he seems to be pretty careful about what he spends it on. I think a shared hosted Minecraft server with some friends is his latest expenditure, and I guess that makes sense.

Years ago, I did discover that one of my kids had done some in-app purchases coming from my credit card which I never authorized. I immediately reverted it, and complained to Google that unauthorized purchases should not be possible. It's utterly ridiculous that it was possible back then. I hope they fixed that. Payments should always require explicit authorization from me to my bank.

[chii]

> discover that one of my kids had done some in-app purchases coming from my credit card which I never authorized.

if the kid stole the credit card information and used it, then it's not ridiculous - it's the same as stealing cash.

It is the responsibility of the parents to punish the kid for stealing. They should know its not allowed - whether google did not confirm it or not is besides the point tbh.

[mcv]

No, the kid didn't steal anything. Just clicked the button to buy the in-game stuff, and Google deducted it from the credit card tied to my account without requiring any authorization. The fault here was entirely with Google.

[Belphemur]

Google made it too easy to make in app purchase.

If you don't pay attention, when purchasing an app or anything else the first time, you enable by default the "fast workflow" that doesn't require authorization for the following purchase.

It's also hard to find the setting again in the play store app.

All is made to reduce friction when purchasing... Which doesn't align with the goal of most parents.

[mcv]

Exactly. It's vital that we revert all such payments made without our explicit authorization. This is harmful behaviour from Google, and it's important that they understand that.

[red-iron-pine]

it is in their interest to keep that going to the fullest extent possible.

they will nod their heads and put in some controls, but eventually the dark patterns will come out again.

[rentalord]

> clicked the button

That was the authorization.

[mcv]

It wasn't. That's not how authorization works. A random game should not control my finances.

[pseg134]

Your child was in control of the finances not the game. You gave them the controller so I don’t understand your hostility to the previous post.

[mcv]

No, my child was playing the game. The game is not my banking app, and even my banking app requires authorization on top of clicking a button. Merely clicking a button in a game is not financial authorization, and it's harmful to accept this as if it's normal. It's not.

I'm not hostile, I'm just explaining that playing a game is not the same thing as authorizing a financial transaction. I don't understand why you insist that they are.

An online financial transaction should at the very least require a password or pin code. Preferably a redirect to my bank where I authorize the transaction through my bank's authorization mechanism (which uses 2FA). I go out of my way to disable everything that doesn't do that, including pin-less NFC payments on my bank card. At the time, I'd also set Google Play Store to always require a password (which should really be the default), and yet it executed a payment without it.

To suggest that a simple button click in a game played by children should be enough to access my money is ridiculous.