There are many risks associated with children using mobile devices.

In consumer protection efforts in general, children are considered the most vulnerable group/most likely to have their rights violated. In the mobile application sector, children's awareness of the risks involved in using mobile devices is clearly not as high as that of adults. Furthermore, children are more easily attracted to games than adults, especially given the increasing number of applications with features and content appealing to children. This is not only happening in Vietnam but also in developed countries, including the United States, for many years.

In early April 2017, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) initiated proceedings in a case concerning children's in-app purchases on Amazon. The court ruled that Amazon must prepare up to $70 million in compensation for consumers. The case stemmed from children being charged for in-app purchases even though they did not make the transactions. These transactions were successfully completed by children without adult confirmation.

The applications involved in this case were primarily online games that allowed users to purchase in-game items such as character equipment, character upgrades, territory, in-game resources, game sequels, or even pay to skip difficult parts of the game. Virtual currency in the game was purchased using the user's credit card information – a very quick and convenient payment method since the card information was already stored in the account. Normally, when a purchase request is made by a player, the application would require confirmation such as a password or fingerprint. However, Amazon allowed players to make purchases without confirmation from the account holder – users only learned about the expenses upon receiving their credit card statement from the bank. The incident spanned five years: from November 2011 to May 2016, causing significant losses to consumers.

The court's ruling on this case is considered fair and protects the legitimate rights of consumers. However, from a consumer's perspective, proactively protecting one's rights is more beneficial than waiting for losses to occur and then receiving compensation. A similar case involving Amazon was thoroughly handled by the US FTC with Apple and Google – the world's leading app providers. Accordingly, these two companies compensated affected consumers and allowed consumers to claim refunds directly on their mobile devices when they discovered in-app transactions. These three cases demonstrate that a very large number of consumers worldwide have been affected by in-app purchases.