How to Check In-App Purchases in Kids Apps

By the JMH Developers editorial team · Published: August 5, 2026 · Last reviewed: August 5, 2026 · About 7 min read.
Disclosure: JMH Developers publishes kids’ games, including titles linked in this guide.

A free kids game can still charge money, and both stores tell you how before you install. The App Store and Google Play product pages list every in-app purchase with its price, and reading that list takes under a minute. It shows whether the app sells one permanent unlock or an unlimited stream of coins, and two device settings then decide whether your child can spend anything at all.

Read the purchase list before you install

On the App Store, look under the Get button for a small "In-App Purchases" label, then scroll to the Information section, where an In-App Purchases row with a See All option opens the app's top items with prices attached. On Google Play, the "In-app purchases" note sits just below the Install button, and the About this app panel usually shows a price range.

Read that list for four things:

• How many distinct items there are. Three or four usually means a small fixed catalogue. Fifteen means a shop.
• The highest price. A range reaching into the tens or hundreds is the clearest signal that the app is built around repeat spending.
• What the items are called. "Full version" and "Unlock everything" describe content. "1,200 gems", "Starter pack" and "Refill energy" describe currency.
• Whether anything recurs. Both stores label subscriptions and state the renewal period. A weekly subscription in a game for a four-year-old deserves a second look.

Check the age rating on the same screen. Apple's tiers are set by the developer through a questionnaire, and App Store Connect Help documents what the 4+, 9+, 12+ and 17+ tiers mean. On Android, apps aimed at children must meet the Google Play Families programme requirements, covering content, ads and data handling. Neither rating tells you the price ceiling, so read both. Our own free games for kids follow the pattern worth expecting from any children's title: free to download, optional in-app purchases, and no game that stops working until you pay.

What a parental gate is, and how to test one

A parental gate is a short check placed in front of anything a small child should not reach alone: the purchase screen, external links, settings. It is not a password but a task meant to be trivial for an adult and out of reach for a preschooler, which is why the usual forms are a two-digit multiplication sum, a number spelled in words that you type as digits, or a button held for several seconds.

Test it yourself before you hand the device over. Open the shop or settings icon and try to get past the gate the way a three-year-old would: tap rapidly, tap the corners, tap the same spot over and over, then close the app, reopen it and try again. Watch for these failures:

• The gate accepts any answer, or an empty answer, and only looks like a check.
• The correct answer is visible on screen, or uses digits the child has just been practising in the game itself.
• The gate opens once and stays open, so a second purchase needs no check.
• A skip, close or "later" control reaches the same purchase screen by another route.

In every JMH game, in-app purchases sit behind a parental gate, and no game requires payment to keep playing. Apply that standard to any publisher, and re-test after a large update.

Consumable packs and one-off unlocks are different risks

The list gives you names and prices. What matters more is what happens after the purchase, and there are three shapes.

• Consumables. Coins, gems, energy, hints, spins. They are used up and bought again, with no upper limit, usually in tiered bundles where the largest looks like the best value. This is the shape that produces surprise bills.
• Non-consumables, or one-off unlocks. A single purchase that opens the full content permanently, restores free of charge on a new device, and leaves the shop with nothing further to sell. For a young child's app this is the lowest-risk model.
• Subscriptions. Recurring charges, often behind a trial. Reasonable for a library that is genuinely updated, but set a diary reminder to cancel.

The rule of thumb: if the list is almost all consumables, the game will keep asking. If it is one or two unlocks, the asking stops after one decision. A large mixed-content app such as our learning games collection for ages 4-6 is judged the same way, by reading what the items actually are.

Warning signs of pressure design

Pressure design turns a child's frustration into a purchase prompt. None of it is illegal, and many decent games use a mechanic or two mildly. Notice them before the device is in your child's hands, because a preschooler cannot recognise a sales technique and simply experiences the game as unfair.

• Countdown timers on offers. A discount expiring in ten minutes exists to shorten the decision, and a child cannot walk away from it.
• Energy or lives that drain. Play stops after a few minutes and resumes after a wait or a payment.
• Two currencies. Soft currency earned by playing plus hard currency bought with money, priced so the earned kind never quite reaches the good items.
• Launch popups. A "starter pack" shown before the child has played anything.
• Locked content inside the play area. Greyed-out characters or levels placed among the working buttons, so a tap lands on the purchase screen by accident.
• Adverts that are purchase prompts. Rewarded video and interstitials interrupt play and usually lead to other paid apps. Nearly all of our games contain no ads of any kind, and each game page states that title’s status; to filter for the ad-free ones, see kids games without ads.

Lock purchases on an iPhone or iPad

iOS gives you two tools that solve different problems. Apple Support's guide to parental controls on iPhone and iPad covers both.

Ask to Buy keeps purchasing possible but routes it through you. It runs on Family Sharing: the organiser switches it on for the child's account, and every download and in-app purchase the child attempts sends an approval request to the organiser's device. Nothing is charged unless you approve, which suits an older child learning to ask.

Screen Time removes the option entirely. Open Settings, then Screen Time, then Content and Privacy Restrictions, turn restrictions on, open iTunes and App Store Purchases and set In-app Purchases to Don't Allow. Choose a Screen Time passcode that is not your device unlock code and not a birthday. Purchase buttons inside games then stop working altogether, the cleanest result for a toddler on a shared iPad.

Lock purchases on Google Play

On Android the equivalent control is purchase authentication, and it lives in the Play Store app rather than in system settings. Open Google Play, tap your profile icon, go to Settings, open Authentication, choose "Require authentication for purchases" and select the option covering every purchase through Google Play on that device. Google Play Help documents this alongside content restrictions on Google Play, a separate setting that filters downloads by rating.

The setting applies per device and per account, so a tablet used with a different Google Account needs its own pass. If the child's account is supervised, Family Link adds an approval step on top; set both.

A ten-minute check before you hand the device over

Run this once per new app, and again after a major update. It is faster than a refund request.

• Read the full in-app purchase list, including the highest price and any subscription.
• Decide from the item names whether it is consumable currency, a one-off unlock, or both.
• Check the age rating and, on Android, whether the listing carries a "Contains ads" badge.
• Install it, play for five minutes yourself, and count the purchase prompts, timers and energy meters.
• Try to break the parental gate the way a small child would.
• Set Screen Time or Ask to Buy on iOS, and purchase authentication on Google Play, before the first session.
• Check your purchase history a week later to confirm nothing slipped through.

If a game fails on the gate or on the shape of its purchase list, uninstall it rather than negotiating with it. For the wider set of things to inspect in a children's app, read our guide on what parents should check in online and mobile games, and the summary of our own approach on the safety page for parents.