Password protection for purchases? Come ON MS!!

[HitTheBricks]

My 4 1/2 year old son just purchased a $4.99 game without my permission. We have an old iPhone 3G that's used to control our music system and play a few games, which he refuses to use with anymore because it's so slow...plus the Lumia has a much bigger screen.

I rarely buy apps. I download the free ones and play the trial versions. My iPhone would prompt you for a password, so I assumed there'd be enough hoops to jump through trying to buy a game on my WP. Shame on me for assuming!

Is there a way to password protect making purchases? I can't let him play with the phone anymore, which really sucks, not to mention the hour I had to spend on the phone trying to get the charge reversed. You get an email confirmation that says what you were charged, along with an VERY helpful link to Windows Phone (United States).

So it's an xbox game right? The billing does go through xbox, but they have no idea what to do with windows phone. I have been really happy with WP, until now. I'm so disenchanted! WTF Microsoft? What if he had purchased hundreds of $$ worth of games?

Sorry for the rant but between four different Microsoft help desk's, no one knew anything! Seriously! Nothing about windows phone. If you're going to allow charges without password confirmation, give me a number on the email confirmation!

I found this too: Password or pin for Marketplace purchases

 

[TechnoTim]

doesn't help you now, but that's what kids corner on windows phone 8 is for.

 

[crystal_planet]

Sorry dude, but if you let your 4 1/2 year old son navigate around on your phone without the radio and wifi disabled you're asking for trouble.

 

[Duvi]

Luckily it wasn't a higher priced game.

 

[power5]

I find it stupid as well. I don't think the comments saying that allowing a child to play games on your phone without disabling the antennas is a good solution either. So I can either not let me kid play with my phone when I want them to be able to, or I can turn off every connection possibility my phone has so I am in the dark if anything comes up?

 

[jfa1]

Our two year old grandson plays on my wifes iPad and we have to watch him as he pushes buttons and almost buys add on games to his favorites so its not just a WP issue. I dont know if the iPad has some way of blocking that but it appears that it does not.

 

[palandri]

....I'm so disenchanted! WTF Microsoft? What if he had purchased hundreds of $$ worth of games?....

Good gawd, I know what Jo Frost from Supernanny would say. I hate to sound cold and callous, but you accept responsibility for giving your 4 1/2 year old son your phone to play with and not watching him. Then stop blaming Microsoft for not having a pin code.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[HitTheBricks]

Good gawd, I know what Jo Frost from Supernanny would say. I hate to sound cold and callous, but you accept responsibility for giving your 4 1/2 year old son your phone to play with and not watching him. Then stop blaming Microsoft for not having a pin code.

Just my 2 cents.

You're certainly entitled to your 2 cents. I wrote that because I have been an advocate for WP for a while, even with my wife and most of my friends on iPhone. This was the first time I had a big issue with any of the functionality.

I'm not the only one who feels this way. Look at the link I posted. Additionally, most people do not password protect their phone in the first place (mine is now). What if someone stole your phone and intentionally bought up everything in the marketplace just to be an a$$.

I let my son play with the phone because he loves playing games. If I were a kid, I'd want the same thing. I hope MS brings the kids corner to WP 7.8.

 

[Bkr11]

Good gawd, I know what Jo Frost from Supernanny would say. I hate to sound cold and callous, but you accept responsibility for giving your 4 1/2 year old son your phone to play with and not watching him. Then stop blaming Microsoft for not having a pin code.

Just my 2 cents.

So parents that don't hover and/or let their kids use their devices in a car shouldn't use WP? Seems pretty lame to me. As anti iOS as I am, my 3 year old twins would have bought add-ons galore for their educational iPad apps if not for the password...

 

[chevans920]

We have an old iPhone 3G that's used to control our music system and play a few games, which he refuses to use with anymore because it's so slow...plus the Lumia has a much bigger screen.

This cracks me up... a 4 1/2 refusing to use a device because it is "too slow" - he's a kid for crying out loud. Don't let him dictate what he will and will not use.

Either way, my wife and I refuse to let our daughter play with our phones/ipad/computers. We grew up just fine without having a game in our hands at all time and so will she. Just our way of thinking - as she gets older, we don't want to have to give her a phone at dinner time so she'll be calm... so on and so forth.

 

[palandri]

This cracks me up... a 4 1/2 refusing to use a device because it is "too slow" - he's a kid for crying out loud. Don't let him dictate what he will and will not use.

Either way, my wife and I refuse to let our daughter play with our phones/ipad/computers. We grew up just fine without having a game in our hands at all time and so will she. Just our way of thinking - as she gets older, we don't want to have to give her a phone at dinner time so she'll be calm... so on and so forth.

+1 I agree. My thoughts exactly!

 

[AaronP105]

I think they are adding this in Windows Phone 8. I think you can set up the wallet app to put a password on purchasing items in the marketplace/store.

 

[HitTheBricks]

This cracks me up... a 4 1/2 refusing to use a device because it is "too slow" - he's a kid for crying out loud. Don't let him dictate what he will and will not use.

He's a smart kid who knows the iPhone is a POS. I can't blame him because I hate using it too. Sonos has not released an app yet, so I'm relegated to using the old phone. There are a few apps people have created but the functionality is limited.

He does still play with the iPhone sometimes, but he'd much rather use my new phone. He's a kid, but he's MY kid and shares a lot of my sentiment about using technology. Hate on me if you want, but I feel that allowing him to use technology will benefit him in many ways. I only wish there were more safeguards in place.

I originally posted here because I needed to vent and I thought this community would be able to offer some advice or a workaround. Instead, I get snide comments about my parenting. If you think it's nice to comment through the ambiguity of the internet and not offer helpful advice, I'll have to live with that. Otherwise, anyone have something useful to offer?

Here, I'll start. If you get charged for purchasing something unintentionally, call this number (Games for Windows Live / XBox) and choose the billing option: 1-877-274-4349. They were able to reverse the charge.

 

[Bkr11]

For the record I'm with you HitTheBricks...and was surprised the direction people chose to take this thread.

 

[power5]

This cracks me up... a 4 1/2 refusing to use a device because it is "too slow" - he's a kid for crying out loud. Don't let him dictate what he will and will not use.

Either way, my wife and I refuse to let our daughter play with our phones/ipad/computers. We grew up just fine without having a game in our hands at all time and so will she. Just our way of thinking - as she gets older, we don't want to have to give her a phone at dinner time so she'll be calm... so on and so forth.

Not sure how old you are but the only hand held games around when I was a kid were these:

I did not get to even have that in my hand all the time. It used batteries that didn't recharge by USB. Other than that, the reason you didn't grow up with something like your daughter has the chance to is because it didn't exist. If your parents were even lower class they would have been able to get you something like your phone for you to play with.

Glad my parents let me play a game and use my imagination to think I was controlling an actual football player even though it was really just a lightbulb dot. My girls do not get the phone anytime they want it either. Not like OP was saying he just wants to be able to throw his phone at his kid to keep him from bothering him, but nice take on it.

What shocks me is that some of the posters think their parents kept an eye on them every waking moment of the day. My parents said, "go play" and did not check on me every 30 seconds to make sure I had not bought anything. Mostly because I couldn't. Why do kids today need constant supervision and guidance? I let my girls just play how they want and explore and learn together. They don't need a guiding hand all the time, just like I didn't.

 

[chevans920]

Not sure how old you are but the only hand held games around when I was a kid were these:
Click to view quoted image

I did not get to even have that in my hand all the time. It used batteries that didn't recharge by USB. Other than that, the reason you didn't grow up with something like your daughter has the chance to is because it didn't exist. If your parents were even lower class they would have been able to get you something like your phone for you to play with.

Glad my parents let me play a game and use my imagination to think I was controlling an actual football player even though it was really just a lightbulb dot. My girls do not get the phone anytime they want it either. Not like OP was saying he just wants to be able to throw his phone at his kid to keep him from bothering him, but nice take on it.

What shocks me is that some of the posters think their parents kept an eye on them every waking moment of the day. My parents said, "go play" and did not check on me every 30 seconds to make sure I had not bought anything. Mostly because I couldn't. Why do kids today need constant supervision and guidance? I let my girls just play how they want and explore and learn together. They don't need a guiding hand all the time, just like I didn't.

I think we're missing something here... at no point did I accuse the OP of "throwing his phone at his kid to keep him from bothering him." Nor did I suggest that he should constantly supervise his kid. All I said was that my wife and I don't want our daughter playing with our $500+ electronics. And trust me, my parents didn't keep a constant eye on me either... that's how we got away with playing hockey until 2 in the morning all the time.

Anyway, back on topic, I do hope the OP does find a solution to his problem and wish I could be of more help.

 

[fwaits]

I think they are adding this in Windows Phone 8. I think you can set up the wallet app to put a password on purchasing items in the marketplace/store.

Yep, here ya go...