"My son racked up £1k bill on Xbox"

[dietpeachsnapple]

Huh...

The fact that, at first, I read that as 100 billion pounds...

At this point, 1000 pounds sound almost reasonable.

 

[katsabas]

The kid should get grounded for a fucking year. Closing his account is not merely enough. Besides, he even looks like a dork.

Did he really think that all this would not come back to bite him? SERIOUSLY? What do they feed this kid, stupid pills?

 

[Mr Shrike]

There's a very good moral to this story...

Always check your statements, people!

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

Well that kid should pay for it. I had a job at twelve ... if I was the mother of that kid I'd have him pay back the money by making him mow lawns, clean cars, etc for friends of the family. Any money he gets from it can go to paying back his debt.

Best way to teach your kids about money is to make them work for it so they can buy their own stuff.

Set the little shit straight.

Kid doesn't want to work, then sell the xbox and all his games (after formatting it of course) and any remaining debt can have a compounded 10% Interest. <.<

No tv, no luxury goods, no movies ... until the debt is repaid with accrued interest. Too many kids expect handouts in life.

 

[Aethren]

This is why I never want to have children.

If my son (or daughter, I'm not sexist) tried this stunt at 11, he (or she) would be stripped of pretty much all toys and other possessions until the debt is payed. All they'd be left with are clothing and the barest essentials like books and school supplies. If they didn't know about the value of money before, they're about to take the next few years learning it.

I don't buy into that whole wishy-washy, politically correct BS that says 11 is too young. That is plenty old enough, but parents these days lack the balls to do anything to discipline their own children. And that is why this world is so fucked up now.

 

[Reaper69lol]

Well, I gues she overestimated her son. What else could happen, when you give your card to an 11 year old xbox player?

 

[Belated]

If you want to give him a gold account, buy a 12-Month subscription. If you want to give him Downloadable Content, give him some points cards. If you want him to have his own spending money, give him cash.

But do not leave your financial information on an electronic device that your child has access to. This isn't [http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/tech/Boy-Racks-Up-800-Bill-on-Farmville-90223632.html] the first time [http://www.padgadget.com/2010/09/15/tech-savvy-toddler-racks-up-itunes-bill-on-ipad/] this has happened. [http://voices.washingtonpost.com/posttech/2011/02/for_sezer_and_lorin_ulku.html]

And while we're at it, what is up with all of these stupid arbitrary add-on scams? I can understand developing new stuff for the game that you hadn't thought of before, and wanting a little compensation for it. But then we have games like Bioshock 2, where the developers deliberately locked up content that was already on the game just so they could charge you more for the game. It's like every big game developer has turned into Will Wright.

EDIT: Another one for good measure. [http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1337425/Children-young-4-using-iPad-iPhone-games-100-buying-sprees.html] Seriously, $67? $60 was the price of Modern Warfare 2 on the day it was released. What could Smurf Village possibly offer me that's better than Modern Warfare 2?

 

[rabidmidget]

1.lol

2.he may be only 11 but he had to have realised he was spending a lot of money.

Then again, on the steam christmas sale I thought I spent around £30-£50

£120 the bill was in the end D:

Well on the bright side, since steam sale prices are so low, you probably bought two years worth of games with that money.

 

[bulldogftw]

That kid is so grounded.

 

[Kenko]

Am i a bad person for laughing at the mother?

No, I think everyone had atleast a chuckle.

 

[Meestor Pickle]

Its funny, then you think she would of gotten more than amount lost by selling her story.

 

[silversnake4133]

This is why you don't give your kids Gold memberships on Xbox live. Hell, at 11, the only thing I would give my kid is a gameboy. They can have the more expensive machines when they reach 15.

 

[MrAkuma201]

Man that kid is crazy... How? Thats all I can say o and I'd give him a hight five. Now if he way my son I will kick someone in the nuts in front of him and tell him if you do that one more time that will be you

 

[Saint of M]

With people like this, why am I the one who rode the short bus?

In my humble, aspergers syndrome opinion: The two are idiots.

I whole heartedly agree there should have been some red flags for the mom. Doesn't she look at her bills? And if not, shouldn't the bank and the credit card company asked what she was doing?

As for the kid, while I agree he probably didn't have that great of a concept of what he was doing, if mine did that I would have sat him down so he could see me take a sledge hammer to that gaming system, and ban him from owning one until he paid me off!

 

[Xanian]

Mmm...anyone else get the refrain to "Responsibility" by MXPX stuck in their head reading the story?

Eh...while the Mom is a little to blame for this, I doubt the kid was that incredibly naive. I'm sure over six months he had been making fairly small purchases each week so it would fly under the radar when she glanced at the statement. That's what my brother's did.

 

[enriquetnt]

Partially the mothers fault for being dumb enough to use her credit card that way (especially since there ARE prepaid cards that allow you to SAFELY control the expenditure in these services, and the kid can even buy them himself out of allowances, gifts, or good honest WORK)

Not allowed to play for a while?.... !!?!?!?!?!!!

hes NEVER EVER gonna come near a console until he buy it himself PERIOD, (sounds bad but in reality is not so bad, i bought my first console when i was just 12, and my own TV 6 months after that, i pulled it off doing report works for my friends at highschool, i specially got well paid for handy work like models (i was extremely good at those, guaranteed "A" grade) this way he will learn the value of money and the importance of work.

 

[Adam Galli]

Wow. This is both funny and impressive that the kid could've spent that much.

 

[Trasken]

make him sell his kidney to pay you back lady.

Or dock his allowance for years until he pays you back

Personally id go with the first option since its quicker