Letting 11-Year-Old Daughter Play Mobile Game, Shocked Dad Found That She Has Spent Rs 4 Lakh On It

A father was left in shock after his 11-year-old daughter generated a bill of £4,500, around Rs 4 lakh, on a mobile game. The 72-year-old man Steve Cumming, gave the young girl permission to spend £4.99, about Rs. 466, for Roblox, the game in question, on his credit card.

The man wasn’t aware of the huge amount spent by his daughter until months later when he checked the balance and found out hundreds of transactions. Cumming took his rage out on the makers of the game, accusing them of trapping little kids into spending without fully understanding what they are doing.

The man said his daughter thought she was paying monopoly money while in fact, all spending is real.

The mobile game is said to be free to play and has gained over 100 million players all over the world. It provides a platform for people to create and join several games.

It wasn’t until the horrified man contacted The Jeremy Vine Show of BBC Radio 2 that Roblox refunded him.

According to Mr. Cumming, he didn’t give it much thought at first but during the lockdown, when he set up online banking, he was shocked to find out what happened. His first thought was he had fallen victim to a scam.

Roblox makes money through in-app purchases.

After finding out about the missing money from his account, the man got in touch with HSBC to cancel the credit card. However, he said, after that, another £1,000 (Rs 0.9 lakh) left the account and went straight to Roblox via Google Play.

When talking to BBC, Roblox said it had been trying to avoid children generating large bills by measures including contacting parents to refund, like in the case of Mr. Cumming, and not saving billing information.

It also urged parents with children playing the game to review their payment option on third-party services, like Google Play, and consider putting a password for each time a purchase is made.

This isn't the first time kids spend their parents' money on a mobile game. With access to mom and dad's bank account and also his mother's phone, a 17-year-old boy in India has spent a total of Rs 16 lakh on PUBG Mobile. The boy was later made to work in a repair shop so that he couldn't spend too much time on the game.