Remember Smurfs Village? The free game on iOS devices that caused parents to despise it, and numerous other games like it, as their offspring ran up credit card bills with their in-game purchases? Seems Amazon’s handy “1-Click Ordering” could cause similar havoc on the Kindle Fire. Problem is, the feature cannot be disabled on the device.
Cult of Mac’s Nicole Martinelli reports that kids who play with the popular 7-inch tablet are just one swipe away from buying their own Christmas presents. Jason Rosenfeld’s 3-year-old daughter basically did just that after seeing Dad’s shopping history on the tablet.
Even though the email confirmation sent to her father from Amazon ended her spree, at least one parent returned the tablets because the one-click buys can’t be disabled.
Software engineer Lance Durham returned the tablets after following Amazon’s suggestion to “de-register” the devices, mainly because Amazon told him he couldn’t disable the 1-Click shopping function. He followed the instructions, but de-registering the device caused the apps he downloaded not to work on the Fire anymore. That’s when he decided his kids would be getting something else for Christmas.
Luckily for parents in a situation like this, Amazon is refunding the money spent on the accidental buys. But at least one security expert says that any device where purchasing can’t be disabled is definitely not one for the kids.
“My advice is if you can’t trust someone with a device that can place orders in a click and may have access to age-inappropriate content – don’t hand it to them,” said Kurt Roemer, chief security strategist for Citrix Systems.
Which is the exact reason my wife keeps the iPad, and the credit cards, hidden from me in a super secret secured off-site location.
