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Iphone Games: Kids nknowingly Spend Real Money in 'smurf's Village'
Sawyer Rummelhart, 4, holds his mothers iPad showing the game "The Smurf's Village, " at his family's home in Gridley, Calif.
AP Photo / Rich Pedroncelli
"The Smurfs' Village," a game for the iPhone and other Apple gadgets, was released a month ago and quickly became the highest-grossing application in the iTunes store. Yet it's free to download.
So where does the money come from? Kelly Rummelhart of Gridley, Calif., has part of the answer. Her 4-year-old son was using her iPad to play the game and racked up $66.88 in charges on her credit card without knowing what he was doing.
Rummelhart had no idea that it was possible to buy things—with real money—inside the game. In this case, her son bought one bushel and 11 buckets of "Smurfberries," tokens that speed up gameplay.
From Associated Press
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