Payment button lets parents approve children’s online purchases

Thumzap is a payment button and app that enable parents to approve their children's online purchases.

Teenagers spend much of their time chatting and playing games online. But of course a number of these activities require their parents permission, not to mention their parents money. This problem has led to the development of Thumzap, an app from a startup based in Tel Aviv, which enables parents to take control over how and what their children spend their money on.

The app does first of all require sites to integrate Thumpzap’s payment button. Once installed, the child can click the payment button when they want to buy something, and parents will receive a notification in the app and can view details of the purchase and approve it with one click. Eventually, Thumzap will receive a small cut whenever the button is used. Thumzap doesn’t require parents to share their credit card details with their children.

We have already seen apps setting up an Ebay-style kid-to-kid trading service for children to use, which must first be confirmed by parents. How else can mobile technology and online shopping be made easier for tech-savvy teens?