Google Play Adds Protective Password Feature

Mar 14, 2014 09:48 AM EDT | Jordan Ecarma

Likely in the hopes of heading off more lawsuits, Google Play store has updated to add a new "require password" setting that allows users to require credentials for every purchase.

The new setting has three options: to require the password for every purchase, to require the password every 30 minutes and to never require the password, Engadget reported.

Google also added an in-app purchase reminder as an extra alert to warn users before they spend money.

A New York mother recently sued Google over free apps that allowed their children to run up hundreds of dollars without their permission.

lana Imber-Gluck filed the case on behalf of herself and other parents after her five-year-old son downloaded a free game called Marvel Run Jump Smash and then incurred a $66 bill, BBC News reported.

"Google has unfairly profited by marketing free or low-cost games to children and by permitting them to easily rack up charges for worthless in-game currency, by failing to incorporate reasonable controls such has requiring the entry of a password," said the statement from the representing law firm, Berger & Montague.

Parents say the games are purposely designed to get children to spend exorbitant amounts of real money on virtual currency.

"These games are highly addictive, designed deliberately so, and tend to compel children playing them to purchase large quantities of Game Currency, amounting to as much as $100 per purchase or more," the class action lawsuit reads. "As such, the sale of Game Currency to minors is highly lucrative."

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