One of the most popular games in the Apple app store is called Smurfs’ Village. This is the type of game you load on your iPhone and then toss the phone to the kids to play with. It’s a little like Farmville but it takes place in that weird world of blue people that only has one female AND NO ONE EVER ACKNOWLEDGES IT. In the game, you can buy extra equipment or powers through in-app purchases using real money. But those extras are apparently way TOO easy to purchase and parents have been getting billed hundreds, even thousands of dollars for Smurf stuff that their kids bought. Now Capcom, who made the game, is in trouble with Apple. One of the solutions might be to reduce the automatic login time for the app. Normally, once you enter your password, you don’t get prompted to do it again for 15 minutes. But junior could have gone on a Smurf buying spree by then.

This marks the first instance of the phrase “Smurf buying spree” in the history of this blog.