In-App Purchases & Loot Boxes
How in-app purchases and loot box mechanics target children, and practical steps to prevent unwanted spending.
In-App Purchases is payments made inside a game or app for extra features, items, or currency, which can lead children to spend money, sometimes large amounts, without fully understanding the cost.
What is this?
In-app purchases allow children to spend real money within games and apps, often on virtual items, extra lives, or cosmetic upgrades. Loot boxes — randomised rewards bought with real or in-game currency — use mechanics similar to gambling. Children may not fully understand they are spending real money, and costs can accumulate quickly.
How it works
Apps and games use psychological techniques to encourage spending: limited-time offers create urgency, premium currencies obscure the real cost, and loot boxes exploit the thrill of chance. If a payment method is linked to the device, a child can make purchases with a single tap. Some games make progress deliberately frustrating to encourage 'pay-to-win' spending.
Warning signs
In your child
- • Asking for money or gift cards more frequently than usual
- • Talking about needing to buy items in a game to keep up with friends
- • Becoming upset or anxious about not having enough in-game currency
On their device
- • Unexpected charges on linked bank accounts or credit cards
- • Multiple small transactions in app store purchase history
- • In-game currency or items that the child cannot explain how they obtained
Prevention steps
Remove payment methods from the device
Do not link your bank card or credit card to your child's device or app store account. If you use a prepaid gift card instead, keep it yourself until the account is set up and tested: purchase approvals do not reliably stop gift-card or code spending.
Enable purchase authentication
Set up password, PIN, or biometric authentication for every purchase. On Apple devices, use 'Ask to Buy' through Family Sharing. On Android, enable purchase authentication in Google Play settings.
Discuss the psychology of in-app spending
Help your child understand that games are designed to make them want to spend. Explain how premium currencies disguise real costs and how limited-time offers create false urgency.
What to do if it happens
- 1Contact the app store (Apple or Google) to request a refund — both have processes for unauthorised purchases by children.
- 2Remove all payment methods from the device immediately and enable purchase authentication.
- 3Talk to your child calmly about what happened, focusing on the lesson rather than punishment.
Related topics
If you need to report this
In immediate danger: call 999. For non-emergency police matters, call 101.
Concerned about a child but it's not an emergency? NSPCC helpline 0808 800 5000. Childline for young people 0800 1111.
This is practical educational content to support families. For case-specific concerns about a child's safety, contact the NSPCC helpline on 0808 800 5000 or your local safeguarding team.
The picture in the UK
30%
of young people (school Years 7–12, roughly ages 11–17, across Great Britain) had gambled with their own money in the past year — up from 27% in 2024. This is why the gambling-style mechanics in loot boxes matter.
Gambling Commission / Ipsos, 202559%
of young people have some experience of gambling, and 49% had gambled in some form in the past year. This wider figure counts any gambling — including with family, or free-to-play and arcade-style games — whereas the 30% above counts only young people gambling with their own money.
Gambling Commission / Ipsos, 2025Myths & facts
Myth: Loot boxes aren't really gambling because you always get something.
Fact: The reward is randomised and bought with real money, which is why regulators and researchers treat loot boxes as gambling-adjacent. The Gambling Commission's own youth research now tracks gaming and loot-box-style spending alongside traditional gambling, and the concern is that these mechanics normalise paying for chance from a young age.
Myth: My child can't spend real money without me knowing.
Fact: If a card is linked to the device, a child can often buy premium currency with a single tap, and premium currencies deliberately obscure the real-world cost. Without 'Ask to Buy' (Apple) or purchase authentication (Google Play) enabled, small transactions can add up unnoticed until the statement arrives.
Age by age
- 5-7
At this age spending should be entirely in your hands: keep no card stored on their device, turn off one-tap or password-free buying, and require your PIN, password or fingerprint for every purchase. Young children cannot grasp that a tap costs real money, so the goal is simply to make accidental spending impossible.
- 8-10
As they start wanting specific items to keep up with friends, turn on purchase approval — use Ask to Buy through Apple Family Sharing or purchase approval in Google Play — but don’t rely on either to stop gift-card or code spending. Begin explaining, in plain terms, that in-game coins and gems are real money in disguise.
- 11-13
Keep purchase approval switched on, but move towards a set, visible budget for any spending — such as a gift card with a fixed amount rather than access to your card. Talk openly about how limited-time offers and 'fear of missing out' are designed to push them to spend, and name loot boxes for what they are: paying real money for a random chance.
- 14-16
Shift from hard blocks towards negotiated pocket-money limits and self-control, and discuss the gambling-style psychology behind loot boxes and premium currencies so they can recognise the pull for themselves. Make sure they know that refunds for unauthorised or mistaken purchases can be requested through Apple (reportaproblem.apple.com) or Google Play, with a bank chargeback as a last resort.
A real-world example
Frequently Asked Questions
Related Resources
Sources
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