Well, if I'm reading correctly, the issue is that the apps don't ask for a password when buying extra features inside the game. So it's not so much ordering toys over the phone with Mommy's credit card, but ordering toys over the phone and telling the store "just use my mommy's card that you have on file…"

My 3-year-old has a Kindle he plays games and watches movies on. He's never once ordered anything "accidentally" or otherwise through his apps. They've always asked for a sign-in to proceed. Of course, we also have a bunch of the parental controls activated so that can't happen. We made sure to do that after one of our employees said his kid bought or downloaded several hundred dollars worth of stuff by touching things randomly (he was around 4 or 5 at the time) when he let him play with it to watch a movie.

but ordering toys over the phone and telling the store "just use my mommy's card that you have on file…"

Again, there would have been consequences for me for this.

Note the parenting going on by BunnyGirl:

"Of course, we also have a bunch of the parental controls activated so that can't happen."

My godson was visiting my farm for a weekend and was using my Nexus 7. At one pt - because his parents raised him well - he ASKED me permission to buy a $3 game to install.

I made him a deal "Sure, we can do it, on my credit card...but then you've got to help me clean out the chicken coop".

He said yes.

...and to his credit, when it was coop-cleaning-time an hour or so later, without whining at all, he pitched in and did a LOT of work for a little kid.

Win/win.

They *do* make it very easy to buy stuff. If you set up your (adult) account, with "one click" and a credit card on record, you can order stuff without any irritating prompts.

You do not give other people access to your account, on any service: not your spouse, not your kids, not your dog, not your guardian angel. Maybe your spouse knows your password (or how to find it) "just in case", but your kids sure as heck shouldn't.

For kids, the answer is really simple: you set up an account for the kids. Why the heck would you give kids unrestricted access to your account and credit card?

The kids accounts have *no* credit card attached to them. Instead, you send the kids gift certificates they can spend. This is easy to do, and the kids can learn to manage their spending.

It's called "parenting".

Decades ago, when my brother and I were children, my brother saw an ad on television for some sort of Bassmasters club. You sent them a check for $10, and you got a magazine, and some lures, and a membership card. So he sent off the $10 and this stuff arrived in the mail. My parents saw it, but my brother explained that he had saved up the money and paid for it himself.

Two weeks later the bank called my father at work. The Bassmasters Club had presented a check for payment, for $10, and the bank wanted to let my father know. My brother had done a creditable job of forging my fathers signature, but he'd written the check out in pencil, which tipped the bank. My father had the bank pay the check, saying he'd deal with the matter at home.

I remember being sent to a friends house for the evening. Parents still parented back in 1975.

What? You mean I'm responsible for what my child does in my home. Isn't that Amazon's burden?

"I'm embarrassed that I'm stupid, so I'll externalize it by blaming somebody else."

Happens day in/day out modern world. Even better, call them out on it, and watch them double down.

This is only dangerous, where it's an agent of government. We see that too often.

Amy's resentment of consumer idiocy is laudable.

But I'd like to see Bezos lose a few of the suits. Amazon has sold these machines as safe and comfy conveniences, cheerful little trinkets amuse and fulfill.

But in fact they are —like all Android and I-devices— SALES PLATFORMS.

If they'd been blunt about that, they wouldn't have had to worry about parents leaving them on the coffee table for kids to get in trouble with.

This is tightly analogous to the Pentium bug.

A microprocessor manufacturer started marketing to the non-technical consumers with typically inane, heart-warming advertising.

Weeks later, a tiny fault appeared in their circuits... A problem which would, essentially, NEVER show up in typical home computer use.

Eventually Intel was compelled to offer replacements, and at a horrendous expense.

Caveat Emptor is a powerful and essential principle in human affairs. And everyone over age three can take it to heart.

But American jurists —even ones who never graduated high school— have other tools as well... Like, 'Don't pretend to be my cuddle-bunny friend if you're actually a rapacious and irresponsible corporate enterprise.'

I have heard multiple versions of the way it works...no idea what is correct or maybe all.

The complaint that felt like it was valid when I heard was that if kid trys to buy something it gives a prompt for the parents code...kid shows it to parent, parent agrees and enters code...item is purchased...that is all good...then the kid can buy anything else for the next 15 minutes or so until that OK times out. That does not sound good.

Former Banker - you've got it right there when you say "heard multiple versions."

As with most issues, the devil is in the details. Is this a case of parents not parenting? Or is it a case of the company being deceitful?

It is hard to tell from this article. And since I do not have a Kindle Fire, a Kindle, a Nook, or any other such device I really don't know. So, I'll go with it might be a case of the company trying to make things easy and neither parents nor the company seeing the pitfalls in that way.

After all, if the company were trying to "rip off" consumers eventually they would lose business, no?

So, I'll go with it might be a case of the company trying to make things easy and neither parents nor the company seeing the pitfalls in that way.

Probably right. I have decoupled my Google Play (aka app store) account from my credit cards. The parents and Amazon never considered the possibility of minor children racking up charges to attached cards without much, if any supervision.

The solution: create separate accounts for each child, under parental supervision. If the child wants to spend their own money, they can purchase an Amazon gift card and attach that to the account. Gift givers can also provide Amazon gift cards.

"The solution: create separate accounts for each child"
I take it a step further and have two entirely separate devices. Bought a pair of tablets together. It simplifies administration to only work on one platform and the kidz version can be locked down tighter without inconveniencing the adults.

Amazon charges are hardly the real concern here. Face it, eventually you WILL leave an incognito tab open.

I am so sick and tired of lazy ass parents who want the world to do their jobs for them.

Your kid, your problem. If you can't figure out a way to keep your kid from blowing the limit on your credit card, you probably shouldn't have either. Sheesh.

Parenting means consequences, and they have to be applicable to their age. For my older kids, if they do anything that warrants punishment, the first thing that goes is phones and computer access. I pretty much just have to threaten it, now that they know I'll take their stuff in the middle of a snapchat, even. And if they're away from the house and I realize they didn't do the chores they were supposed to, just cut off the data package to the phone. It's brilliant. Works as well as a spanking