A mother in Connecticut has issued a warning for other parents: beware of what your children are doing on their phones or tablets.
Jessica Johnson recently told Good Morning America that over the summer, her six-year-old son George spent a total of $16,293.10 in the Apple App Store on in-app purchases for games on his iPad!
Johnson, a real estate broker, said that on July 9, she noticed the same charge of $106.34 appear on her bank statement 12 times in a row. In a transaction report shared with GMA , there were also lesser charges of $53.16 and several more in the $200 to $600 range.
Johnson shared her experience with her moms group on Facebook with hopes of preventing this incident from happening again.
She wrote in her post, "As a mother of young children, I thought it was important for other parents to be aware of it. It's unfortunate, because we're all in a pandemic, we're all working from home. We are working really hard to keep our kids entertained while getting work done. We're [sometimes] inclined to say, 'Here, take the iPad.' I think, clearly, it backfired in my case."
Johnson contacted her bank about the activity, who informed her that she would be responsible for the charges and suggested she reach out to Apple. Apple apparently agreed to refund her 10,553.86.
Apple told GMA in a statement, "For over a decade, the App Store has proved to be the safest and most trusted place to discover and download apps.
"We understand mistakes can still happen and work with customers to investigate, educate them on the tools available for their protection and, in this case, provided the customer with a refund."
LISTEN on the Audacy App
