Parents are being urged to be vigilant with their iPhones and iPad, following warnings by parenting groups about “immoral” in-app advertisements that may see children unwittingly spending hundreds of pounds.
The adverts are another controversy for developers, who’ve previously been criticised for including expensive in-app purchases within popular children’s apps.
The latest warning followed the launch of an iPhone app that can have ended in children signing as much as a £208 a year subscription service.
The Talking Friends Cartoons app, available on iPhone, iPad and Android devices, relies at the Talking Friends apps from developer Outfit7, including Talking Pussycat and Talking Lila the Fairy. It allows users to be informed more about their favourite characters, download wallpapers for his or her phones in addition to watch short cartoons co-produced with Disney.
The app itself is free, but on the bottom of each screen is an banner that, when the app was first launched, carried an advert directing users to a quiz to win a 64GB iPad, promoted by a corporation called Yamoja.
To participate in the contest, users needed to sign in to a subscription service costing £4 every week, for which they received four weekly texts containing content reminiscent of “funtones, wallpapers, games, celeb news & more”.
App commentator Stuart Dredge, who wrote in regards to the adverts on his Apps Playground blog, said: “What an advert that tries to sign you as much as a £4-a-week mobile content subscription was doing inside this app is genuinely beyond me.”
The advert was pulled from the app, but another new launch, this time from National Geographic, includes an costly in-app extra.
Dino Land app – released in mid-February 2013 – has attracted controversy for permitting users to shop for extra virtual “bones” in amounts as much as £69.99. The bones, used to hurry up gameplay, are particularly enticing to impatient children who would like to complete the sport quicker.
Dino Land follows a succession of apps geared toward children that feature expensive in-app purchases, including Playmobil Pirates, Coin Dozer and Racing Penguin. Parenting websites are reporting increasing instances of fogeys being charged £500 or more after their children have made in-app purchases while playing games – and advise parents to be sure their devices block the purchases.
Justine Roberts, Mumsnet co-founder and CEO, said: “App-developers build in greater controls from the beginning – it’s shocking that several click-throughs from an advert may end up in a £200 cost for unknowing parents, and it shows just how important it’s to maintain a watch to your child’s device settings.”
Siobhan Freegard, founding father of parenting site Netmums, added: “Few people mind a number of targeted ads that are relevant to the app service, as they realise it is the price to pay for the ‘free’ app. But bombarding children using free apps with expensive services and products they’ll unwittingly register to some of clicks is immoral.”
Developers regularly offer apps free of charge, making their money from advertising or from users making “in-app purchases” (IAPs). These buy paid-for perks that regularly improve a game or offer the likelihood to play without adverts, but are controversial in apps geared toward children and may cost parents money if the acquisition itself isn’t password protected.
When developers create a game they sometimes contract out the advertising within it to a expert, which may serve adverts from hundreds of other organisations.
The adverts within the Talking Friends Cartoons app are served by Google, which permits app developers and publishers to have control over the advertising content on their apps.
Samo Login, CEO of Outfit7, said his company pulled the adverts from the app once it was alerted. He explained: “Now we have a strict policy in place regarding what advertisements are displayed within our apps and take this issue very seriously. Unfortunately, thanks to a technical glitch within one in all our ad networks, this advert was displayed against our advertising policy.”
Outfit7 attracted controversy when it emerged in October 2012 that its Talking Ginger app featured adverts from payday loans company Wonga. Wonga later pulled its adverts from the app.
The Talking Friends series of apps was downloaded greater than 600 million times, with 120 million people a month and 10 million people an afternoon actively using them.
