In one aspect of the teachings herein, an Application Function, AF, in a wireless communication network is configured to support online charging for the consumption of content that has been pre-fetched to a wireless device via the network. The AF functionality thus provides a mechanism by which content may be pre-fetched to a wireless device in advance of charging for that content, while reliably conditioning the later consumption of that content at the wireless device on the online charging decisions made by an online charging system. In another aspect, a wireless device is configured to send a consumption request for pre-fetched content towards such an AF and condition its consumption of the pre-fetched content on the consumption response returned to it.