Recently Apple lost a lawsuit and had to make huge refunds to people whose children made unsolicited in-app purchases in games. This often happened because of the way in-app purchases functioned. As you may know, Apple keeps the in-app purchase window active for 15 minutes so that users don’t have to enter their password again by default to make more purchases. Often children abused this function and made in-app purchases with their parents’ accounts, which resulted in huge bills for the parents. If you want to protect your App Store account from unsolicited purchases, here is how you can do it.
The easiest way to prevent unsolicited App Store purchases is to remove your payment method from your account. This will make in-app purchases take a bit longer because you will have to enter your payment information every time, but your kids (or a hacker) won’t be able to use your credit card to buy stuff.
Another way to restrict purchases is to set up a passcode that will be required every time you want to make a purchase. This will help you bypass the 15-minute rule. To set up a passcode, go to Settings – General – Restrictions and tap on Enable Restrictions. Set up your passcode and then tap Require Password and change the settings to Immediately.
In addition to that, you can disable in-app purchases altogether via your account settings. On your device, tap on Settings – General and tap on Restrictions. Then tap on Enable Restrictions and set a passcode for this option. You will then be able to select which purchases to disable. Simply select In-App Purchases and they will be disabled. Don’t worry, you can re-enable them any time you want!
