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Devastated father says his 9-year-old son spent $118,000 on YouTube ad campaigns for his Minecraft channel using a company credit card — bill racked up in just three weeks was supposed to be one $20 (www.tomshardware.com)
submitted 2 weeks ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 96 points 2 weeks ago (9 children)
  • 9 yo Kid is making vidya
  • Doesn't have many viewers
  • Want to make kid happy
  • Spend 20 $ on ads
  • maybe_a_couple_views.png
  • Three weeks later
  • I'm literally 118 009 $ in debt

MFW

Honestly, if you can't understand how absolutely debilitating this is over a tiny misstep, I hardly know what to say. People commit manslaughter and get off easier that this. It's in no way reasonable to say that "Oh, you shouldn't have used the company card to pay 20$ for your kid - you deserve life-ruining debt".

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  • [–] 38 points 2 weeks ago (1 child)

    Allowing a child to associate their happiness with view counts is a terrible idea. Already too many sociopaths in "content creation" as it is.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 weeks ago

    Sure, I'm not advocating for doing what he did, regardless how he paid for it. I'm putting myself in the shoes of a young father that just wanted to make his kid happy and didn't properly consider the bigger picture.

    People buy their kids all kinds of things that are bad for them with the best intentions. We usually don't conclude that they deserve debilitating debt as a consequence.

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  • [–] 30 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

    a tiny misstep

    Multiple colossal missteps.

    you shouldn't have used the company card to pay 20＄ for your kid

    Correct. He should have spent $0 on a company credit card for his kid. He could have spent $20 from his own personal card, which presumably would have more reasonable limits. He should have ensured the card required a pin to use so that unauthorized charges couldn't accrue.

    I feel bad for him, too, but he's incredibly stupid and I don't see why anyone else should have to cover his ass for his own fuckup.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 weeks ago

    These companies literally design their product with the intention of making people overspend. As long as micro transactions have existed, the problem of kids over spending their parents money because they were allowed a single purchase has been a problem.

    The companies in question are making bank off this. They know it's an issue, and they actively exploit it to make more money. It's extremely unethical.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 weeks ago (2 children)

    As far as I can tell none of my cards have any single limits. When I remodeled my house I charged 45k to one to buy materials and pay contractors.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 child)

    You have a credit limit so you can't have a balance above it. You can easily spend 45K of you keep paying off, though

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  • [–] 13 points 2 weeks ago

    Yeah I'm with you.

    An extra $100k debt as a young dad will absolutely change your retirement dramatically.

    Yes this guy fucked up but the detrimental outcome is not commensurate with the fuck up.

    It would be trivial for Google to detect that something is likely wrong with this account, and not doing so is predatory. I'm sure they make many millions in this way every year.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 weeks ago

    At the same time, all my coworkers leave their shit logged in all day at several computers walk around and use random computers logged in with other people's stuff and they look at me like im an asshole because i put a lock screen password on my machine. (Im the one doing what's actually written in the employee handbook of course).

    So yeah, i yearn for the day they make a six figure fuck up because of shit like this.

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