Smurfberries: The New Kiddie Crack

Bushels of these virtual fruits are costing parents a bundle.

Children as young as four are going on spending sprees with their parents’ credit cards while playing virtual games on iPhones and other Apple gadgets.

Youngsters are playing free-to-download apps such as The Smurfs’ and then racking up bills of up to £100 buying items such as ‘Smurfberries’.

Meanwhile their parents are unaware of their sons and daughters’ wallet-busting habits until they receive their credit card bills.

California's Kelly Rummelhart’s four-year-old son was using her iPad to play the game and racked up $66.88 (£42) in charges without knowing what he was doing.

In this case, her son bought one bushel and 11 buckets of Smurfberries, tokens that speed up gameplay.

[...]

Capcom Entertainment, the publisher of The Smurfs' Village, says inadvertent purchases by children are "lamentable."

[...]

Capcom spokesman Michael Larson says "Smurfs" is no different from other games in this regard, and the bulk purchasing option is useful to adult "power players."

It's quite likely that most of the money pulled in by these games comes from addicted adults who want to quickly build their Smurf villages, bakeries, zoos and zombie farms. But there's a loophole in the in-app purchase process that children stick their fingers through.

[...]

Andrew Butterworth of Ontario, Canada was well aware of how in-app purchases work and of the password-free period.

[...]

"[My son] came to me all proud and said he'd figured out a way to get all these Smurfberries," Mr Butterworth says.

"And as soon as I saw the Smurfberries, I knew that he'd purchased them using my credit card. “I was amazed that he'd figured out a way to do it, because I was sure that he would have needed my password."

He had last entered his password on the iPod four or five hours earlier, he said. His son's shopping spree cost $140 (£88).

Jesus. Addicted adults and children are spending real money building fake "Smurf villages, bakeries, zoos and zombie farms." Kids and parents alike were far better off in the good old days of simply rotting their brains away watching TV.

[Daily Mail]