How to Stop Your Child Buying Things Inside Games on Your Android Phone

Check one setting on your phone today: how often Google Play asks you to verify a purchase. If it is set to never ask, a child holding your unlocked phone can buy things inside a game with a few taps. Google's own help page says the default is to verify every purchase, but the setting can be changed, and it is worth ten seconds to look.

How does a child end up buying things inside a game

Usually by accident, and usually through the phone's own payment settings. Many games let a player buy extra items, coins or upgrades from inside the game. If your phone is set to skip verification, a tap on the wrong button can finish the purchase before anyone notices. Children often cannot tell the difference between pressing a button to play and pressing one to pay, especially when the game is built to make buying look like part of the fun.

What does Google Play's purchase verification setting do

It decides when Google Play asks you to prove it is really you. According to Google's help page for India, there are three choices. The default is to verify every purchase made through Google Play's billing system. A second choice lets you keep buying, including inside apps, for the next 30 minutes without verifying again. The third is never to verify. Verification can use biometrics, your screen lock or your Google Account password.

How do you check the setting on your phone

Open the Google Play app and tap your profile picture. Go into the payments section of that menu, tap Purchase verification, then Verification frequency, and confirm the option you want. These are the steps on Google's help page, and menus can change, so follow the page if yours looks different. For a phone your child uses, the default of verifying every purchase is the safest of the three choices. The 30-minute option is the one to be careful about, because a child who picks up your phone in that window may not be stopped at all.

Does this setting cover every kind of purchase

No. The setting is about purchases made through Google Play's billing system, so it does not cover other ways of paying that an app or game may offer. If your phone has a payment app on it, that app has its own PIN or lock, and a child who knows or watches you enter it is a separate risk. We cover that in our article on payment apps on a shared phone. Google's page also adds that verification is always required for purchases in apps and games designed for ages 12 and under, whatever your setting is, which is a useful extra layer for young children's apps but not for everything on the phone.

What else should you do so a child cannot buy things

Remove the chance, not just the payment. Keep your screen lock private and do not leave the phone unlocked in a child's hands. Choose which games stay on the phone at all, since a game that is not there cannot sell anything. If a game is on the phone, you can keep it closed and open it only when you decide, so a child is not tapping through a store screen alone. Then ask your child to tell you if something asks for money, and promise you will not be angry, so a mistake reaches you early and not on a bank message.

None of this needs a lecture. It needs one setting checked, one habit changed, and one rule your child can remember.