Digital natives, children who have been brought up during the recent explosion of domestic digital technologies, have a much greater understanding of its concepts than many adults. From my own experience with my niece, who has just turned 6 years old, she was able to download and access apps on my iPad at the age of 4, and now beats me at the games that I download. The point is young people are interacting with digital technologies at a much younger age and this is leading to examples where parents are left facing huge bills as a result of their child downloading apps on their family devices.

So what can you do to prevent your child embarking on a spending spree of their own?

Using Apple restrictions and parental controls

The most effective way of preventing your child downloading applications or making in-app purchases is to apply restrictions; the parental control feature on all iOSs devices (although not titled as such on the device) helps you prevent and control your child's access to content and information.

To open the restrictions feature on your Apple device, simply open the 'Settings' application on your profile screen (unless moved), select 'General' and then select 'Restrictions'. You'll be prompted for your phone's security pin twice and then you're ready to go.

To learn more about the types of restrictions available, as well as how to enable or disable restrictions visit Apple's 'iOS: understanding restrictions (parental controls)' support page.

In many cases, parents will have protected their password, only entering it once they've approved the download. However for a family in Bristol this wasn't enough to prevent an iTunes bill of £1700. While the five year-old wasn't aware of the family iTunes password, the spending spree followed in the 15 minute window that Apple devices default to, allowing users to purchase multiple items without being prompted for the password on each occasion.

In an interview with BBC breakfast, technology expert Nathan Rae responded to the report highlighting that 'all computer security comes down to a balance between security and convenience. So while some parents may feel that entering a password each time they or their child wants to download an app is tedious and time consuming, others will regard it as an essential security feature to avoid any similar scenarios. Nevertheless, Apple's simple parental controls will allow the user to apply their preferences."

Sharon Kitchen, the mother of the 5 year old online shopper was asked why she allowed her child to use their family's device without being monitored. In response, she explained that 'unfortunately, in modern day society these sort of technologies are become increasingly important for educational purposes. So as well as games there is a wealth of education resources available that I want my children to experience and enjoy. She continued explaining that 'parents are faced with certain challenges, I myself have 5 children and it can be difficult at times to monitor their behaviour online. Yet Apple have been amazing, giving us step-by-step instructions on applying restrictions and are issuing us with a refund.'

While Sharon and her family have been fortunate not to be landed with a hefty bill, it raises an important consideration, in that many of us take our own and our child's use of mobile devices for granted. And while we shouldn't prevent the use of them, it's always useful to review your restrictions and optimise them accordingly.

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