Our eight-year-old daughter has, unbeknown to us, managed to spend over £8,500 over 90 days on the Apple app store. We did not realise that our HSBC debit card had somehow been linked to her iPhone and had no idea that she could spend so easily. She was not aware that the money she was spending was real money.
She has been sending money to YouTube channels and the YouTubers have then befriended her on Roblox in an attempt to make more money from our child. To me, this is financial grooming. HSBC did not once alert us to these suspicious transactions. Apple initially rejected our claim for a refund, then, on appeal, agreed to refund only two payments totalling £60 because they were unauthorised purchases by a minor, even though the others were made in the same circumstances. We are desperate.
Name and location withheld
This is a staggering story on many levels. Your daughter managed to make 270 payments over three months without you noticing and without the bank or Apple flagging up suspicious activity. You told me she has her own iPhone and her own Apple ID, which allows her to log in to Apple services without you being notified. Children under 13 are not permitted to apply for a personal Apple ID. You say you have no idea how your debit card came to be linked to her account. Some of the money was spent on YouTube Super Chat and Super Stickers, which is how YouTubers can monetise their channels. Essentially, their viewers can pay for their live chat messages to be highlighted or pinned to the top of a chat feed.
Roblox and other online gaming services, meanwhile, allow users to pay real money for virtual merch and privileges. On one day alone, your daughter made six payments of £49.99 to Apple and one of £6.99. You sent me a screenshot of a YouTuber pulling up your daughter’s online profile on a live video to see who was spending so much money. Her profile photo clearly showed a young child. In another video, a YouTuber offered to add her as a friend on Roblox if she paid out more.
This virtual jungle is a mystery to many parents, including me, which is why it’s essential that parental controls are activated and in-app purchases supervised or turned off if children are given smartphones. In my view, an eight-year-old has no business having an iPhone, let alone their own Apple ID, and you have most painfully realised your mistake.
While you acknowledge you bear much of the responsibility for this, HSBC and Apple have questions to answer. Juvenile spending sprees on apps are not as unusual as they should be and both companies should have flagged concerns about the series of transactions on the account. In 2014, the US Federal Trade Commission ordered Apple to pay out $32.3m (£24.6m) to reimburse American parents for unauthorised app purchases made by their children. Some children had run up bills of several thousand dollars, although I’ve never heard of a bill as large as yours.
When I contacted the company it instantly decided, much to my surprise, to refund the entire amount. The money was paid the following day. It told me it does not comment on individual cases but assured me an adviser would call you and guide you through safeguards to prevent this happening again.
HSBC said its controls are designed to balance security, convenience and consumer demand, and that your mobile banking app and mailed statements should have alerted you, which indeed they should. As for Roblox and YouTube, the former said that it does not impose spending limits on children’s accounts because it’s up to parents to supervise their on-screen activity, but it does have tools to help parents manage their child’s account remotely. It says it can’t refund payments made via third parties, such as Apple.
YouTube said there were daily purchase limits on Super Chat and that a refund could be requested if the charge was unauthorised or accidental. If purchases are made through an Apple account or device, refunds have to be applied for through Apple.
It went on to say that if it is discovered that an account holder is under 13 and using YouTube without parental supervision, the account is closed. There are three levels of controls which can be used by parents to limit what preteen and teen children can see.
Hopefully, you can use this ordeal as an excuse to confiscate your daughter’s iPhone until she is older. But if and when she is allowed her own screen, it’s essential you create an Apple ID for her within your family group, rather than allow her to create her own or to use yours – which will be linked to your bank card. This will automatically trigger Ask to Buy, which notifies you when a download or purchase is attempted.
