A mum has described her horror after her children were able to run up £600 on a mobile phone games app.

Tamara Bogen had no idea her two eldest children, aged eight and five, were buying items on Play Together, a free game by Haegin Co, which she had downloaded for them on an old Apple iPhone.

It emerged they might have made the eye-watering purchases in just 15 minutes after she had put her password in.

The family only became aware in February after her husband Gazmend Thana went shopping and found his card was blocked.

The couple, who live in Tottenham, initially thought someone had hacked their account when they saw the multiple 'Apple' payouts on their bank statement.

Then they realised it might have been a game on their children's phone.

She said:  "We confronted our children which at first was 'no', then 'yes, we're very sorry'."

"We were in complete shock, scared and horrified and generally couldn't believe it. It had to sink in," she added.

The horrified mum-of-three said she rarely buys apps on phones and had no knowledge of the parental guidelines available.

"The children had our old iPhones, which were already set up," she said. 

"My daughter knows she's not allowed to buy anything and if she wants something she has to ask. She had the password to get the game and that's it.

"Then we found out that she wasn't just getting the game, she and her brother were getting busy purchasing things for the game, a dress, a this, a that.

"These games are all designed to entice them, so everything is against you, but we learnt our lesson to a degree."

Tamara immediately contacted Apple and was given a reference number to appeal, which she lost.

She then contacted the games maker, but was told it was Apple's responsibility.

She said: "We went back and forth. It's easy for them to say that so they don't have to deal with anything.

"When we explained it to Apple, they should have refunded it without dispute."

She added: "I'm sure there are people who have lost thousands and thousands. How it's allowed to carry on I don't know.

"Apple, probably all the companies, make lots of money this way. They design games to especially to suck kids in. 

"They're only kids, they don't understand, they just wanted it, it's designed to appeal to them.

"I'm not saying it's right, they are naughty, but they are just children."

She said her children - she also has a two-year-old - no longer play with their phones.

"We took it away from them," she added. "It was probably for the better as they were getting too attached to the phone.

"Now they just watch television, they have toys to play with, they have to use their imagination now."

A spokesperson for Apple said "these situations are entirely preventable".

They explained that parents can opt for 'Ask to Buy' and 'Family Sharing' notifications so that when a child initiates a purchase or download, a request goes to the family organiser to approve. 

Parents can also provide 'verified parental consent' and create an Apple ID on the child's behalf in their family group.

They said as a "gesture of goodwill" they would escalate the case and see if a refund can be made in this instance.

It also emerged that a setting Tamara was unaware of may have enabled purchases in the time period after the password was entered.

They added: "What it sounds like has happened is they had the setting enabled that means you don't have to enter a password for 15 minutes after entering it for the first time. 

"You can turn that setting off but it seems she wasn’t aware."

This paper also tried to contact Haegin Co but did not receive a response.