My seven-year-old sister Lily is scarily competent with technology; she can change my phone's screensaver, send a text message and download apps. The flipside to this is that she is also a target for the games industry. It is easy to see why, considering she recently racked up a £200 bill feeding an imaginary animal apples and seeds on a supposedly free iPad app.
Having had his debit card blocked due to an uncharacteristic amount of spending (£200 had been spent on his iTunes account in a matter of days), my dad assumed that some kind of fraud had taken place; after numerous phone calls and emails to Apple, we found out that the money had all been charged to a game called Dream PetHouse. Once we established that my dad had not been indulging a penchant for animated companions, all eyes turned to my little sister, who promptly burst into tears.
Deciphering some sense through the sobs, we managed to work out what had happened. Lily often plays free games on my dad's iPad, and as a busy father of five he hadn't thought twice about downloading another free app to keep her amused. The app Dream PetHouse, is a cartoon simulation game which involves users feeding "the world's cutest animals", caring for them in a tree "staffed by Chipper and his group of adorable chipmunk friends". What is not so cute, however, is that in order to progress at any meaningful rate, spending is required.
The concept is reliant on continually improving your pet in order to advance through the levels, and unless you are prepared to move at a snail's pace, you need to spend. Prices vary, but some of the purchases are frighteningly expensive; a "ton of fruit" costs £20, while a "mountain of seeds" costs £40. All that is required to spend is for the user to enter their iTunes password; Lily had seen my dad put in his password and so thought nothing of entering it again and again when prompted by the game.
My dad was careless – he should have kept his password secure; but I feel the company behind the game have a case to answer too – not in law, but ethically. iTunes lists the game as appropriate for those over the age of four, and the cartoon animals are clearly designed to appeal to children. The tone of the customer support service demonstrates the extent to which the app is aimed at children; when I asked about the payments for "food", I received an email addressed to "Pet Lover Harry" from a "friendly Chipmunk Nurse" named Joy.
Why, then, does a game so clearly designed for children allow such vast sums of money to be traded for virtual fruit and seeds? Small children are now incredibly skilled with technology, but they should not be encouraged to play a game where money beyond their comprehension is involved.
