When Steve and I were out of town, I received an email that my credit card had been used at Vudu (a movie service we use). I figured it was an error, my cell phone coverage was non-existent so I knew I would have to deal with it when I got home. The day after we returned I finally got around to sorting through emails and saw the email again. I searched through my account and found that Kung Fu Panda 3 had been purchased. Perhaps the babysitter rented it. We questioned the kids and it was unanimous that Bennett did it. We approached him and he didn’t deny clicking on the movie. He woke up early one morning and turned on the TV.
“I just pushed a lot of buttons and it let me watch the movie.”
“That’s because you purchased the movie.”
“No I didn’t. It’s just buttons, not like real money.”
He clearly didn’t understand he purchased a movie. The next morning I get another email from vudu thanking me for my purchase of Teenage mutant Ninja Turtles. We pulled him back in. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me! He figured out just what buttons needed to be pushed to watch his movies. The remote mysteriously went missing that morning and didn’t resurface for a week. There were no more Vudu charges.
What really concerned me was how he was able to purchase them without a password. I contacted Vudu – there’s no way I’m the first mother to experience a button-happy kid. They offered no monetary assistance on the surprise purchases. I figured it was worth a try. They then explained I need to change the security settings on every device vudu is used. This includes but is not limited to the Roku, smart DVD player, the kindle, ipad, iphone and computer. That seemed excessive.
“But I log into my account on every device so shouldn’t the settings be for my account, not the device.” No, it’s not set up that way. I’ve had VUDU for 7 years and didn’t know this. That is ridiculous. Not only that – they don’t make it easy to change these settings on a device like our DVD player. Convenient.
Here's a novel idea. How about disciplining your kid and teaching him that he is not to watch movies without permission?
He actually had permission to watch movies. In fact, he had permission to watch movies on VUDU (that's where we store the digital copies we purchase) we just didn't realize the settings we set up on our computer for parental controls didn't carry over. It's going to take a lot of work keeping up with technology!
I just love when people who don't know someone and hear/read about 30 seconds worth of something that happened, give advice. Novel idea – how about you worry about yourself and your own kids rather than provide unsolicited and unhelpful parenting advice…..
The passwords are really necessary. I don't think you can't expect little kids to realize the difference between free tv, on demand free cable, regular viewing subscription and what is paid and what is free. Some on demand costs and some is free. If there is a code you have to put in then it's more clear. He just saw the title or a picture and wanted to watch it. It wasn't malicious or particularly naughty of him. He was probably very proud of himself for being able to work the controller by himself. They are ten times more complicated than when we were kids. You had to set up vudu on each device. So you would have to control all settings on each device. Vudu can't control your DVD, iPads and what not. They are different companies.
We're always learning as parents aren't we!?
I'm sorry. I realized I used a double negative. I meant I don't think you can expect them to realize the difference. Hope the rest was clear. I think you should be more proud of him than annoyed.
They don’t have to control your device. They could and in my opinion should make parental controls for your account not for each individual device.
Oh man! We've had a few surprise purchases through Amazon prime but it' was pretty painless to set up a feature to block purchases. And they refunded the surprise purchases:) kids figure things out so fast! I swear they are smarter than I am with technology. Our remote disappears regularly as well lol.
I was just joking with a friend the other day about our experience with technology as kids. All of my experience can pretty much be summed up in fourth grade history with the "video" game Oregon trail! That is not the case anymore!
I have been reading your posts for years but this is my first comment. I just wanted to say, thank you for sharing you life, your stories, your family and all your creativity and talent with your readers.
Alos, I love kid logic, "No I didn't. It's just buttons, not like real money." I got a good chuckle and shared it with my husband as well.
i Got a good chuckle out of that line as well. my oldest, who is only 8, a couple years ago asked for a movie and i said no because it costs money. his solution to this, just put it on the credit card because that isn't money…..ahhhh, if it was only that simple.
My 25 yr old son with autism has figured out how to order movies on my phone. Oh joy! Glad I found this info. I couldn’t find it on vudu’s site.