There are laws around the ways in which you can compensate minors. This may be the most reasonable way to pay the kid. That said, I assume the decision to make it an educational grant was not made without consultation with the family.

Why would it? That's just ... reading something into this that isn't there.

The child is what, 14? You're not going to just drop a bucket o' cash in his lap. They probably talked to his mom and worked this out.

Edit: Contributing to a minor's education is not uncommon in situations like this.

So a College fund or a Scholarship is an insult?

Why not just the cash? An apology but you have to spend it how Apple wants? What's up with that?

What if Apple buys a meth lab with it? You’ve just deployed a fully general argument against the existence of money.

I think I should use /s in here in future.

Well, it says they’ll “compensate [the family] and make an additional contribution [to his education fund]”, so it sounds like they’re doing both.

It sounded to me like they're offering to contribute to an already-existing college fund or start one.

Right... but why that? Do they think there's a problem with his education specifically? Why not give him cash and let him put it in an education fund, or a pension fund, or whatever he wants? Why say 'and you'll want to use this to increase your education'? Like buying him a voucher for a facelift.

The US values education quite a bit (I suspect other places do too, but I can only speak for US experience), and there's a long history of rewarding children with educational funds for all kinds of things. This is very commonplace.

As to why it's commonplace, well, if the family can afford to send the kid to college, then this is basically the same as giving them cash, since the family now gets to do what they want with the money they would have spent on his college. And if they couldn't afford to send him to college, now they can (or now they have a bit more help with it, depending on how much money was given). It looks good for the company too, since no one (except possibly you) thinks giving a kid an educational fund is a bad thing. Finally, by having such an educational stipulation, it hopefully prevents the parents (or legal guardians) from spending or wasting it on other things so that the kid ultimately reaps the benefits, which I think is prudent.

I believe he's receiving cash separately from the college fund.

A college fund is a common way to acknowledge that a teenager often isn't the best judge of how to spend an influx of cash. Heck, if all of my employee bonuses over the years had been added to my retirement fund instead of my checking account, I'd be in much better shape.

I do not think anyone offering to contribute to a tuition fund are trying to insult the person.

I can also imagine that putting the money in a fund have a lot of tax related benefits for both the persons giving and recieving the fund compared to paying it out in cash.

I don't think any parents or child is going to look that gift horse in the mouth.

They don't want to set a precedent of people blackmailing with a bug like rumours say he tried. The bounty program sets a price an avoid exploitation on both sides. Respecting that was more important.

Paying a scholarship allows Apple to send a valuable transfer but no cash, rewarding the discovery without setting a precedent.

> They don't want to set a precedent of people blackmailing with a bug like rumours say he tried.

You're creating rumors, not reporting them.

You can read the letter they sent to Apple. That wasn't even the first attempt at contact and all they asked about is if there were any bug bounties available.

Nobody tried to blackmail anyone by simply asking if the bug may be eligible for a bounty.