Apple Refuses Refund After 6 Year Old Spends $16K on ‘Sonic Forces’

It has been announced that Apple has refused to refund a parent after their child spent $16K on Sonic Forces in the app store. Jessica Johnson, the mother of the six year old has appealed to Apple, explaining her son made the purchases without her permission, but Apple has refused to budge.

The six year old started playing Sonic Forces on his mother’s iPad, everything was fine until George decided to explore the game’s settings. He came across performance-boosting products (ranging from $2 – $100 USD) that made the game a lot more fun. George then managed to purchase $2,500 USD worth of in-game products, Jessica was shocked when she saw her credit card bill, still not knowing where the charge had come from, and Jessica notified her bank where she was advised to file a claim for suspected fraud. The bank later figured out the charges came from her Apple account.  Unfortunately, Jessica had already passed Apple’s 60-day policy, which meant Apple could not issue a refund.

She said “They told me that because I didn’t call within 60 days of the charges, they can’t do anything,” told Jessica to the press. “The reason I didn’t call within 60 days is because Chase told me it was likely fraud — that PayPal and Apple.com are top fraud charges.” An Apple rep told Jessica that there were parental controls on her device that she should’ve set. “Obviously, if I had known there was a setting for that, I wouldn’t have allowed my 6-year-old to run up nearly $20,000 in charges for virtual gold rings,” she said. “These games are designed to be completely predatory and get kids to buy things. What grown-up would spend $100 on a chest of virtual gold coins?” Jessica shared her story to the press in hopes others might be able to avoid the same trap: “Check your security settings. I’m appalled that this is even possible in these games and that Apple devices are not pre-set to prevent this.”