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Comment by aaomidi | Hacker News Reader

The issue wasn't the app exists and people were using it. It was the demographic this app was targeting.

The app was targeting 13 to 35 year olds. People under 18 has to get parental permission which was literally just selecting a box.

The $20 of free money is a big deal for a kid and they might not have the best idea of what they're giving away with agreeing to this.

It's a really scummy move and possibly illegal to target kids like this.

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another perspective: FB's big mistake was paying these users too little.

if FB had paid, say, $2000 a month instead of $20, the users would have been angry at Apple for forcing such a program to stop. FB would look like a force for good.

instead, FB cheaped out.

There are so many places on the world where $2000 a month is more than most people get. Of course they didn't pay that much. I would probably consider it seriously given that currently I get about $800 and that is still considered average.

But that's a great example! If FB were paying you $2000 a month as a participant in this FB program, and then suddenly Apple made it so that FB could no longer operate this program -- would you be unhappy with FB or with Apple?

I still think it would've been an issue to do that for kids as well.

They should've just targeted 18+

But paying such a large amount would certainly draw more attention to the program itself? It might have caused a ruckus earlier and be shut down in the very early stages by Apple. At that point it might not have affected that many people and not so many people would be angry at Apple.

I believe the amount was a way of treading a fine line between being a significant amount for the targeted audience, but not too much to attract too many people.

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