Free-to-pay: a kid plays Dragons: Rise of Berk for an hour … and spends 1,500 euros on in-app purchases

iOS offers some pretty well-thought-out parental controls, including a request for authorization to purchase when the kid is about to make a purchase from the App Store or in an app. These parental controls are certainly practical, but they only work if the child has his own iPhone or iPad (no multi-profile on these machines). And unfortunately for Muhammad Mutaza, a British doctor, his 7-year-old brat used the family iPad and managed to make 1,290 pounds (1,500 euros) of in-app purchases in the game Dragons: Rise of Berk. The high amount of these purchases is not really a surprise when you know that the game offers some packs of runes at 99 euros per pack!

The market of Beurk: the predation of free-to-play-pay at its height

Admittedly, it is easy to blame the recklessness of the dad, who claims to have had to sell the family car to meet the costs incurred, but it seems quite scandalous that a game drawn from a license aimed directly at children (the trilogy Dreamworks Dragons) can offer in-app purchases of such a high amount! The disappointed doctor still obtained from Apple a reimbursement of 207 pounds, which was not enough to fill the hole in the boxes.