Warning:10 is the average for children to start buying on-line

According to research conducted by the charity Pfeg, the personal finance education group, 10 is the average age that children start to purchase items on line. It is therefore just as well that financial education starts to be embedded into the maths and citizenship curriculum at schools this month in an attempt to help people manage their money better.

However, Business also has a responsibility in ensuring there is no exploitation of vulnerable customers such as children when it comes to money management.  And if they don’t there may be a big price to pay for their unethical behaviours as we have seen recently when Google agreed to refund c$19 million dollars to parents whose children ran up enormous bills by downloading apps from its Play store without their parent’s authorisation (an amount imposed by the US Federal Trade Commission).  Some of the children who downloaded apps went on to incur large bills through in -app purchases.  

Google is accused of allowing the purchase of items without a password and of not displaying information about charges. It has agreed to change its billing procedure so that it obtains the consent of the consumer before charging.  This is another example of poor behaviour damaging reputation and the need to engender a culture of fair treatment and transparency of operation to build trust.  Hopefully the new curriculum, which includes learning through financial games, will help to engender more savvy teenagers and adults, equipping them to deal more effectively with the increasing complexities of technology where privacy, implicit consent and big data are now fundamental parts of the digital game.