Block purchases in games
Ever since Apple introduced the ability to make in-app purchases, app makers have eagerly embraced it. You will now find a huge number of free games with in-app purchases in the App Store, so you can unknowingly spend more money on an app than you intended. Children in particular can incur additional costs, because they do not always realize that it really costs money. Fortunately, you can block in-app purchases and this tip explains how that works.
- Switch off
- Danger
- Why a problem?
The danger of in-app purchases
If you want extra gems in a Smurf game or a magical sword in a fighting game, you can, but it will cost you money. With in-app purchases, developers try to ensure that you continue to spend money on an app.
The problem with unwanted in-app purchases by children has regularly been in the news. The extreme cases in which children spent thousands of euros in just a few minutes were particularly striking. Fortunately, parents are now more aware of the risks and know that in-app purchases can be expensive. Hence it may make sense to disable it.
If you want to let your kids play games without the risk of in-app purchases and commercials, consider Apple Arcade. This subscription for a few euros per month offers hundreds of games in all kinds of categories. They have no ads or in-app purchases.
Disable in-app purchases
You can easily disable in-app purchases. You do this as follows:
- Open the Settings app on your child’s iPhone or iPad.
- Go to the Screen Time menu. Is Screen Time turned off? Then you have to enable this. You can set it here for a child.
- Tap Restrictions and turn them on if they aren’t already.
- Go to iTunes Store and App Store, followed by In-App Purchases.
- Choose Do not allow.
Why are in-app purchases such a problem?
The main problem with in-app purchases is that after making an iTunes purchase, you have 15 minutes to make other purchases without having to re-enter your password. You can of course disable this, but many people leave it enabled because it offers extra convenience. Especially if you install multiple apps in a row, it can be useful that you are not always asked for your password.
However, if you install a children’s app and leave your child unattended, he or she can also make all kinds of additional purchases for 15 minutes. You can therefore disable app downloads, in-app purchases and all kinds of other things and you can also shorten the duration from 15 minutes to 0 minutes.
What also plays a role is that some parents unsuspectingly share their password with their children. For example, if a credit card is linked to it, the costs can be high.
There are a few solutions for this:
- Educational: make it clear to children that they are not allowed to make in-app purchases and clearly explain that purchases actually cost money.
- Technical: Disable the 15-minute wait time and disable in-app purchases altogether, as we explain in this article.
