Money for nothing: the dark side of free

What can I do

In the 90s, this journalist can remember premium rate phone numbers being used as audio games for movies, phone calls that would cost a minimum of $4.95 per call and would get you a whole heap of nothing but time wasted. If you were lucky, you could win a hat.

At the time, the phone services using these expensive numbers would ask if you had your parent’s permission, thereby getting the responsbility out of the way.

Over in the land of freemium, the titles only do this for the first play of the game, ignoring this nicety for the rest of the game and instead assuming that whoever has the password to an account or credit card details is aware of the money about to be charged, and that’s just not always the case.

Luckily, you can get around much of this by doing a few simple things.

If you have an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch that you’re letting the kids play with, invoke Apple’s in-app restrictions by heading to Settings, General, Restrictions, and turning “In-App Purchases” off. That should stop the virtual currency trade-off dead in its tracks.

The next thing you need to do is talk to your children about these virtual items, explaining that for each pack they buy, you’re going to be charged a real life amount. Imagine your child racking up a $200 cost for lots of virtual gold coins, and relate that to them in real life with how much pocket money that would consume.

When I was a kid, I was lucky to get three bucks a week. If I had racked up $200 in virtual debt, I know I’d be paying it for over a year.

You can also buy your kids games that cost money. Premium titles that aren’t free generally don’t have require extra purchases to play. You’re already paying money for the title and so companies don’t have to hit you up again. Some premium games still offer in-app purchases, but you can find out what these do by looking at the app details page.

Freemium titles seem to be designed specifically to make money, while premium titles tell a story and offer a gaming experience. We know which one we’d pick.

Finally, don’t give your kids your credit card details or password. Make sure you’re there for every transaction so you know what’s going on.

It’s probably sage advice to remember that there’s no such as thing as “sold out” or “out of stock” in the online world, and if someone ends up spending up a storm with virtual currency, someone else – potentially you – will be left footing the bill.