I’m not sure where the disconnect is. We have a six year old daughter who has had an iPad mini since she was five and she’s had some kind of connected since she was three. Coming from my days as Thedroidguy, she’s used both Android and iOS devices. And to date, we’ve never had a problem with her making in app purchases. It’s actually fairly simple, we’ve never let her have her password and she can’t use her parents’ devices without our permission. We are smart enough to make sure we’re not logged into an app store when she plays with our phones.

There, problem solved.

Well evidently the parents out there that can’t watch over their kids or are just plain stupid enough to give kids their own password may have just ruined it for Android app developers everywhere.

Google and the European Union have come to an agreement that they will no longer label freemium games free in the Google Play Store.

We already know that with Android free wins every time. In fact the only way most developers make a dime is through freemium content. They get the user/customer in the door by being listed with the free games and if that customer gets so into the game they want to pay for it, they can.

I’m an adult. Sometimes I like to just bypass my way through a game by buying a level up. Or maybe I want the most bad ass dragon in the dragon game, it’s my choice and I can plop down $.99 to do so. Freemium games separate the world from just crappy free games.

There is NOTHING wrong with freemium and if you think there is there’s something wrong with you. Please don’t get on your high horse and talk about how bad freemium games are, especially if one trip to your home would reveal that you have HBO, Showtime or NFL ticket. In fact, if you have cable or satellite at all there’s just no reason to complain. You can get HD channels over the air now.

Apple is holding out on being submissive to the EU. While the EU released a statement with praise for Google they also added this note:

Although, regrettably, no concrete and immediate solutions have been made by Apple to date to address the concerns linked in particular to payment authorisation, Apple has proposed to address those concerns. However, no firm commitment and no timing have been provided for the implementation of such possible future changes.

Tim Cook is doing absolutely the right thing. Kids don’t buy iPhones. Kids can’t have an iTunes account. It’s all up to the parents and as responsible parents we should teach our kids that they can’t download content without permission and if they’re too young for that, don’t give them access to the content.

Shocker

We do download freemium content for my daughter all the time. Sometimes if she wants premium content from one of her freemium games she’ll ask us if there’s extra chores she can do to get that content. You’ll be surprised how much housework can get down for $.99 cent download.

So yes Google is lifting the word free from freemium games and yes it’s all because parents can’t handle parenting.