The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is joining more than 50 consumer protection agencies worldwide in a campaign against in-app purchases in “free” apps and games targeted at children.
ACCC deputy chair Delia Rickard is in talks with both Google and Apple about the practice, and is not ruling out enforcement action in the future.
“One of the messages we keep hearing from parents is kids get frustrated, to get to the next level you actually have to make a purchase or something that happens instantly with a purchase can take days of playing to get there, so they’ve really tried to tamper with psychology and understand kids’ psychology to play into that, to try and maximise the chance … of purchases being made,” Rickard says.
“We will see, we certainly have contacted Apple and Google to express our concerns. We’ll be meeting them soon. I know that Apple’s already made some improvements.”
The Competitive Carriers’ Coalition is urging the incoming Abbott government to continue rolling out the National Broadband Network as it renegotiates its deal with Telstra.
The CCC, which represents competitors to Telstra, says there is no reason to stop or slow the rollout during negotiations.
“Malcolm Turnbull has made the case, and there’s some weight to the case, that if Telstra’s agreed to turn it off, then it’s made the decision that it doesn’t want it anymore,” CCC spokesman David Forman says.
“So it should be a pretty simple matter for the new government to negotiate with Telstra just to take it off them.
“Just show Telstra that we don’t actually need to have to stop everything while we’re having these negotiations with you.”
The number of jobs advertised online and in newspapers fell by 2% in August, marking the sixth consecutive month of falls, according to the latest ANZ job advertisements survey.
“However, it is worth noting that while job ads have continued to fall, the pace of monthly decline appears to have moderated a little in recent months,” ANZ chief economist Ivan Colhoun says.
“There are a number of factors that are likely to see overall business conditions remain at relatively subdued levels, including the forecast contraction in mining investment and the relatively high exchange rate.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up to 15063.12. The Aussie dollar is down to US92.35 cents.
Andrew Sadauskas is a former journalist at SmartCompany and a former editor of TechCompany.
