Papa don’t freak: Amazon offers new way to control teen spending

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After hearing the outcry from distressed parents, Amazon has come up with a new way to let teens shop on the site with a level of both autonomy and oversight that should make kids and parents alike happy.

RELATED: 10 secret tricks to save even more on Amazon!

Amazon makes new play for teen business

On October 11, Amazon rolled out a new login option that lets teens 13 through 17 shop the popular e-commerce portal on their own using their parent’s credit card.

Parents can either set controls to limit spending to a certain dollar amount or they can require approval on all transactions before checkout.

Each order request a teen makes triggers a text or email to the parent with relevant details about the item, cost, shipping address and payment information.

Orders can then easily be approved (or declined) by a parent via text message.

Up to four teen users with unique logins can be added, allowing them all to shop through the Amazon app on their mobile device.

In addition to shopping, this new development also allows teens to stream content like video, music and games while still under the watchful eye of mom or dad.

If a household already has a Prime membership, the following benefits can be shared with the kids at no extra cost:

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  • Prime Shipping: Unlimited fast, Free Two-Day Shipping on more than 50 million items
  • Prime Video: Unlimited access to tens of thousands of movies and TV shows
  • Twitch Prime: Free games and in-game loot, Twitch viewing benefits, and discounts on most pre-release boxed games

To sign up, visit Amazon.com/ForTeens.

The timing of this initiative shouldn’t exactly be surprising. First, we have the holiday shopping season gearing up.

Perhaps more importantly, Amazon recently had to pay some $70 million in refunds to the parents of kids under 18 who made unauthorized in-app purchases between November 2011 and May 2016.

So now the company is keen on creating a shopping experience for youngsters that will put parents on the hook for purchases — because in this case, parents are the ones who will have to approve every purchase!

RELATED: This couple replaced both of their incomes by selling on Amazon

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