Apps With In-App Spending Risk for UK Families

Most parents who get in touch about online spending are not worrying about one bad decision. They are looking at a months-long bank statement and trying to work out how a recurring trickle of small charges added up to several hundred pounds. The apps in this table are the ones in our library most associated with that pattern - games with virtual currencies, livestream platforms with gifts and donations, and social apps with paid features that children encounter as a normal part of using them.

In-app spending breaks down into a few different shapes. Loot boxes and random rewards - found in Fortnite, FIFA, GTA Online and others - are the closest the industry has come to gambling mechanics aimed at children, and have been the subject of ongoing UK regulatory attention. Virtual currencies like Robux, V-Bucks and Steam Wallet create a layer of abstraction between spending and value, which makes it harder for children to feel the cost. Subscriptions - the Discord Nitros, YouTube Premium and AI Plus plans - are easy to forget and harder to cancel. Tipping and gifting on Twitch, Kick, TikTok and similar platforms makes social attention purchasable in a way that is unfamiliar to most parents.

The good news is that this is one of the easiest categories of online risk to control with technical measures. iOS and Android both let you require approval for every purchase, and most consoles do the same. Disabling stored payment methods inside specific apps adds another step. The harder part is the conversation about why spending feels so natural inside these apps and how to recognise when it's being used for emotional regulation rather than entertainment.

Five practical takeaways:

• Turn on purchase approval at the device level first. Ask to Buy on iOS, Family Library Sharing on Android, Family settings on Xbox and PlayStation.
• Don't store card details inside individual apps. Make every purchase a conscious choice.
• Treat loot boxes as gambling, not gaming.Have an explicit conversation, especially with children who are saving for a particular "skin."
• Audit subscriptions every few months. They accumulate quietly.
• No app is "safe by default" on spending. The defaults are tuned to convert.

Use the table below as a list of apps to check on your child's phone or console. Our family agreement has a money section that helps you write down a weekly or monthly allowance for in-app spending. The parent journeys include conversations about money and gaming for each age band.

This is a practical reference, not a ranking. Many of the apps below are fine when set up properly. They become a problem when no-one has had the spending conversation, or when children are spending to soothe rather than to play.