A mother has a message for parents after her 6-year-old racked up thousands of dollars’ worth of in-app purchases while playing his favorite video game on an iPad.
Jessica Johnson, a resident of Wilton, Connecticut, told Good Morning America that over the summer, her son George spent a total of $16,293.10 in Apple App Store charges for in-game purchases for Sonic Forces. Johnson said her PayPal account had been linked to the iPad.
Johnson, a real estate broker and mother of two, said that on July 9 she noticed the same charge of $106.34 appear on her bank statement 12 times in a row. There were also lesser charges of $53.16 and several more in the $200 to $600 range.
Johnson reached out to Apple, as well as Sega, the video game developer that owns Sonic the Hedgehog, after her bank refused to refund the charges. Apple has since agreed to refund her a portion of her money, roughly $10,500.
The mom now wants to bring attention to how games are designed for children. “It’s intentionally designed to be a brain chemistry experience that one would get as an adult in a casino … It’s creating a compulsion to want to keep going,” she said.
In Sonic Forces, players compete for rings in exchange for upgrading characters.
Johnson has since made changes to her kids’ media intake, enforced new rules in her home and changed all her passwords to prevent unattended technology use. Johnson said she previously shared her iPad password with her children.
She encourages parents to take some of the same actions and to not be afraid to “look over your kid’s shoulder” to avoid a similar disaster.