App Stores and Purchases

Of everything in this collection, purchase and install controls are the clearest win: they work, they are hard to circumvent, and the harm they prevent is the one that most reliably happens.

What actually goes wrong

In-game purchases, accumulating quickly and invisibly.

Subscriptions taken out on a free trial and forgotten.

Age-inappropriate apps installed casually, especially social and chat apps.

And a stored card used without anybody deciding to use it, which is the mechanism behind most of the large bills that make the news.

The three settings that matter

Purchase approval: every purchase requires a parent to approve it on their own device. Not a password the child has seen typed, which they will have.

Install approval for free apps too, because the risk in a free chat app is not the price.

And no stored payment method on the child's account, with purchases funded by gift balance where the platform allows it, which caps the exposure absolutely.

Ten minutes, and it removes most of the financial risk in this whole subject.

Age ratings and what they mean

A rating describes the app's own content, assessed by the publisher against a scheme.

It does not describe what other users do inside it, which is where most of the risk sits in games and social apps.

Ratings vary between regions and between stores for the same app.

And a rating can change after an update, which is worth knowing when an app that was fine becomes something else.

Treat the rating as a floor and read what the app actually contains, particularly whether it has open chat.

Subscriptions

The category parents miss, because the charge is small and recurring.

Review the subscriptions on every family account twice a year, which takes minutes and reliably finds something.

And know where the cancellation is, because it is deliberately not adjacent to the sign-up.

Refunds

Both major stores have a refund process for accidental purchases by children, and it works more often than people expect.

Ask promptly — the windows are short.

Be straightforward about what happened; the "my child did this" case is common and handled routinely.

And fix the setting afterwards, because a second claim on the same account is treated differently.

The gift card approach

Money on the account, spent down, and no card attached.

Which teaches budgeting, caps the loss, and removes the parental approval friction for small purchases.

Well suited to older children, and a reasonable step on the path from full control to none.

What to check

Is there a card stored on any child account?

Does purchase approval arrive on a device you look at, and did you test it?

What subscriptions exist across the family accounts?

And does the child know what the arrangement is — because the alternative is a request being declined without explanation, which produces a workaround rather than a conversation.

What this changes

Ten minutes on purchase settings removes nearly all the financial risk in this subject, which is the category most likely to produce an actual incident in an ordinary household..

The check

Attempt a purchase on the child's device and see whether the approval actually reaches you.

A surprising proportion of setups fail this.

The gift balance approach

Money on the account with no card attached caps the exposure absolutely and removes the approval friction for small purchases.

It also teaches budgeting, which is the thing they will need at eighteen, and it is a reasonable step between full control and none.

Worth knowing

Refunds for children's accidental purchases exist on both major stores and work more often than parents expect, provided the request is prompt and straightforward about what happened.

One more thing

Age ratings vary between regions and between stores for the same app, and a rating can change after an update. Treat it as a floor and check whether the app has open chat.