Last Thursday I noticed the newly released iPhone/iPad app titled Smurfs’ Village in the Kids Games section of the AppStore. Next summer sees the release of The Smurfs 3D live-action/animated family comedy and I thought this was an interesting marketing effort by Capcom, the studio behind the game.

When I checked the AppStore charts this morning I noticed that the game was the number 1 free kids game in 56 of the 90 Apple AppStores. I also noticed that the game was the top grossing kids game in 56 countries. I downloaded the game and quickly found out why. The game lets players purchase Smurfberries much like Farmville let’s you buy virtual goods to enhance the game experience.

I was a bit surprised that you could buy 1000 Smurfberries for $419 with one click. Additional password confirmation is not required within 15 minutes after your last password input, as described here by the BBC.

When I checked the top in app purchase items I realized that the price was actually in Swedish Kronor, the game simply added the dollar-sign regardless of currency. This just added to the confusion I suspected parents around the world might face. I got the feeling that some of the purchases this weekend might have come from kids happily buying berries on their non-suspecting parents phones and it looks like I might be right. I don’t mean to point fingers at this particular game (there are plenty of very happy adults playing the game obviously), but the problem comes from the categorization of Smurfs’ Village. Apps in the kids and family games categories may seem free and safe to parents, but parents need to carefully read the detailed information before handing over their phones to the kids.

In app purchases for kids is a tricky area. It involves both Apple, game developers and parents. The whole problem arises from a design compromise with password caching:

This entire situation came about because of a design compromise. By requiring you to enter your iTunes account password for a purchase or free download, Apple ensures that an authorized user is in control of the device. That’s a good thing. And by caching the password for 15 minutes, Apple reduces the significant annoyance of typing passwords (especially strong ones that include numbers and punctuation) on a virtual keyboard. In general, that’s also a good design, although it can obviously have unintended side effects.

Apple probably did the right thing with the 15 minutes caching to make it easy for users to buy multiple items without asking for the password every single time. Not all parents are aware of this though. Apple also lets parents restrict the use of their devices with the possibility of turning off in app purchases and password protect the AppStore. Parents should be using these restrictions to avoid surprises, but that requires them to be aware of this possibility.

App developers need to find ways to give families great gaming experiences. That includes the purchasing of games and maybe buying things within the app without feeling tricked. If we don’t, people will learn about it the hard way.

We are setting up a game studio for kids apps here at Brickmark. Currently we feel that we need to stay away from in app purchases since there are so many things that can go wrong. We will do our part of educating families on what to look out for, and how you can set up your devices in the best possible ways to get rid of unintentional purchases. There is so much fun that can be done with touchscreen devices and we want to keep families smiling even after the purchase.