12-year-old runs up $1,300 FarmVille debt

Tallon

Is this mother a moron? Shes blaming FB for her giving the kid her Credit Card.

Do you think kids should be aloud on Fb? I know their policy says you have to be over 13 but should it be enforced? With bebo shutting down, where are all thiose kiddies gonna go?

A 12-year-old British boy racked up more than $1,300 on his mother's credit card so he could buy coins in the Facebook game FarmVille, the Guardian reports.

Now his mother is warning parents everywhere that social networking games aren't as harmless as they appear.

FarmVille is one of Facebook's most popular applications with 82.4 million users.

Users are given virtual coins to start a farm, and they can then trade in their crops for more coins.

But for the less patient users, FarmVille allows people to buy extra coins with real money.

Zynga, the makers of FarmVille, have refused to refund the cash because the boy lives in his mother's house.

Facebook has disabled his account because children under 13 aren't permitted on the social networking site.

The woman, who remains unnamed, blames her son for the situation, but thinks the social networking sites should be more responsible.

"I do think they need to shoulder some responsibility in this business and put systems in place to stop this happening again. The fact that he was using a card in a different name should bring up some sort of security and the online secure payment filter seems to be bypassed for Facebook payments,² she told the Guardian.

Link

dlofnep

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

The gobshíte.

m@cc@

At the same time, how simple must the 12-year-old be? I'd like to think I had a concept of money at that age.

syklops

Do you think kids should be aloud on Fb? I know their policy says you have to be over 13 but should it be enforced? With bebo shutting down, where are all thiose kiddies gonna go?

Hopefully outside not sat in front of the computer all the time.

Skerries

he could have bought some real crops with that

TheZohanS

Tallon wrote: »

Is this mother a moron?

Yes.

Lu Tze

Tallon wrote: »

Shes blaming FB for her giving the kid her Credit Card.

.

In fairness

Tallon wrote: »

The woman, who remains unnamed, blames her son for the situation, but thinks the social networking sites should be more responsible.

Cabaal

Why is she leaving her credit card around for him to use, why didn't she check her statements?

These people never want to accept they've done something wrong, easiler blame someone else
:rolleyes:

Atavan-Halen

It's always facebook/other companies to blame, never the mother who let her 12-year old loose on the internet with her credit card, oh no!

bazmaiden

Tallon wrote: »

Do you think kids should be aloud on Fb?

no

GavRedKing

Priceless :pac:

generalmiaow

I worked out recently that more time is spent playing farmville in the western world than actually farming.

What a little fuker..
To be fair, I always had my mum's credit card details when I was 12 for booking flights etc. I knew not to be a tit with it tho..

muckwarrior

According to a news report I heard on the radio earlier, Facebook is also responsible for sex on the internet. I was sure there was sex on the internet before 2005, but obviously I was just imagining it.

Shivers26

How was the child left unsupervised online long enough to manage this? Also, leaving her credit card out so he could get it. I think the mother is pretty much to blame here.

My son is only given limited internet access, in the living room and in plain view of me. He always has to let me know what sites he uses and definitely no social networking ones. I didnt even think I was being excessively strict with this. He is 11.

chin_grin

South Park already did it!

http://tv.gawker.com/5512185/south-park-explains-everything-that-is-annoying-about-facebook

Ghost Train

Kid is an idiot, sounds like he knew he was spending lots of money, mother could get the money back if she files a police report against the son, but doesn't want it on his record

heres a bit more info

A mother in the U.K. says her 12-year-old son got hold of her credit card and spent more than US$1,400 on Facebook game, FarmVille.

The woman, who didn't want to be named, told the Guardian she discovered the charges in late March. By the time she found out, the boy had completely emptied his savings account of US$450, and racked up an additional US$950 on her credit card.

The game, which is the most popular app on Facebook, lets virtual farmers buy credits to upgrade their crops, barns or animals at a faster rate.

The newspaper reports:

She added that her son was "very shocked" when confronted with the amount he had spent, but it was clear he knew what he was doing. "When I asked him why he did it he said that they had brought out 'good stuff that I wanted.' "

The woman said she called her credit card company to get the charges refunded, but was told the only way to get the money back would be to file a police report against her son.

"He would be cautioned and I have been told that this caution would stay with him. Obviously the idea of a stupid farm simulation jeopardizing his future earnings is not something that I want to consider," she said.

Facebook closed the boy's account.

m@cc@

Wait, people pay money for this ****e? FFS, morons and their money. :rolleyes:

happyfriday

If you play farmville or any of the rest of the crappy games, you deserve to be fleeced IMO!!

As for the mother, yes she is a total moron!! :rolleyes:

Shivers26

Shivers26 wrote: »

How was the child left unsupervised online long enough to manage this? Also, leaving her credit card out so he could get it. I think the mother is pretty much to blame here.

My son is only given limited internet access, in the living room and in plain view of me. He always has to let me know what sites he uses and definitely no social networking ones. I didnt even think I was being excessively strict with this. He is 11.

Why all the restriction? Just get a program to block the bad sites and let him surf in peace.. You sound way too overprotective.

cloneslad

can you sell your cr*p back to farmville to create a profit? I'd imagine you can't but it seems crazy to pay for something if you get nothing in return.

I wonder if he could e-bay off whatever virtual items he bought at a lower price than farmville sell them for. Of course they would make a loss but any money is better than none.

generalmiaow

Deleted User wrote: »

Why all the restriction? Just get a program to block the bad sites and let him surf in peace.. You sound way too overprotective.

This wouldn't have worked for me. 10 year olds can easily bypass filters, they only need to search for the block message on google. When I have kids there's going to be a packet sniffer running.

You do need to let them explore but that software usually blocks mainly pornography, which is less of a concern for an 11 year old, it's more the worry that they will accidentally post their address on the internet or something, or find After Hours and start saying yore ma all the time.

cloneslad

cloneslad wrote: »

can you sell your cr*p back to farmville to create a profit? I'd imagine you can't but it seems crazy to pay for something if you get nothing in return.

I wonder if he could e-bay off whatever virtual items he bought at a lower price than farmville sell them for. Of course they would make a loss but any money is better than none.

Well they closed his account, so I wouldn't imagine he's allowed on the farm again 'til he's 13.

Itsdacraic

Tallon wrote: »

Is this mother a moron? Shes blaming FB for her giving the kid her Credit Card.

Do you think kids should be aloud on Fb? I know their policy says you have to be over 13 but should it be enforced? With bebo shutting down, where are all thiose kiddies gonna go?



Link

Itsdacraic likes this

Morlar

Farmville sounds quite clever. "Here you give me your real money and I give you this pretend money"

For the first time ever in any of these 'outraged parents blame the rest of the world' stories I am going to say facebook deserves some of the blame.

They have a 12 yr old using somone elses cc and no checks. They should have a system where the name needs to match the name on the cc.

tech77

Deleted User wrote: »

What a little fuker..
To be fair, I always had my mum's credit card details when I was 12 for booking flights etc. I knew not to be a tit with it tho..

Where were you booking flights to when you were 12?

MCannon

The mother is 100% at fault. That is hilarious though

jd007

syklops wrote: »

Hopefully outside not sat in front of the computer all the time.

He says as he types away on his computer.;)

orourkeda

gavredking wrote: »

Priceless :pac:

For everything else there's mastercard

opinion guy

atavan-halen wrote: »

It's always facebook/other companies to blame, never the mother who let her 12-year old loose on the internet with her credit card, oh no!

In fairness she has a point with this: " The fact that he was using a card in a different name should bring up some sort of security and the online secure payment filter seems to be bypassed for Facebook payments,² she told the Guardian. "
I'm surprised the bank or whoever are honouring it.

Deleted User wrote: »

What a little fuker..
To be fair, I always had my mum's credit card details when I was 12 for booking flights etc. I knew not to be a tit with it tho..

You were taking trips on your own at 12 :eek: ?

Shivers26 wrote: »

How was the child left unsupervised online long enough to manage this? Also, leaving her credit card out so he could get it. I think the mother is pretty much to blame here.

My son is only given limited internet access, in the living room and in plain view of me. He always has to let me know what sites he uses and definitely no social networking ones. I didnt even think I was being excessively strict with this. He is 11.

Well to be fair I think it would be pretty easy to lift a credit card from a purse when you are distracted and most 11 year olds probably can get online without you knowing. Either when you are out, when in school, when in a friends house. Less of the judgy-judgy maybe eh ?

Amalgam

Hard to wrap your head around the the following:

Based on an estimate of what Zynga likely makes in revenue from the average user, Second Shares projects that the company will pull in about $500 million in revenue this year

http://vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=106325

The whole set up of the company behind it, their tactics.. seems geared to getting kids to do stupid things, which are very very hard to undo, like a subscription SMS, without that person being aware (without reading the small print), that they're entering a subscription service.

http://businesstoolsblog.com/2009/11/avoid-the-facebook-farmville-scam-and-warn-your-kids/

..in a similar vein.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/95894-Blogger-Says-Farmville-Ads-are-Scams

Nice people.

L.Jenkins

Now if the mother is going to be a fucking eijit, then the child isn't to blame. Like Borat once said, it's like giving monkeys guns, just isn't safe!

old_aussie

They say a fool and her money are soon separated.

Stupid women, I needed a good laugh.

Shivers26

opinion guy wrote: »

Well to be fair I think it would be pretty easy to lift a credit card from a purse when you are distracted and most 11 year olds probably can get online without you knowing. Either when you are out, when in school, when in a friends house. Less of the judgy-judgy maybe eh ?

My 11 year old wouldn't dare touch my purse without my knowledge. Internet access is very restricted in school and his creche so no worries there. My credit card is pretty much always maxed out anyway so not too much of a worry for me that himself will go wild spending on it

Point is, supervise the little angels or look what they are capable of doing.

MrPain

Shivers26 wrote: »

Point is, supervise the little sh1ts

You sound like a wonderful mother

Shivers26

Shivers26 wrote: »

Point is, supervise the little angels or look what they are capable of doing.

There, I fixed my post

The_Minister

I don't see wy people are so hard on the mother - if I had wanted to nick my mum's CC and buy stuff, even at that age, I could have.

NothingMan

bazmaiden wrote: »

Do you think kids should be aloud on Fb?

no

In all fairness I blame this particulat spelling error on Girls Aloud. Their fans just aren't clever enough to understand the play on words. Obviously the OP is a massive Girls Aloud fan.

Morlar

NothingMan wrote: »

massive Girls Aloud fan.

If ever there was anything that shouldn't be aloud it's them.

NothingMan

Morlar wrote: »

If ever there was anything that shouldn't be aloud it's them.

+1, I find them much more tolerable with the mute on.

opinion guy

Shivers26 wrote: »

My 11 year old wouldn't dare touch my purse without my knowledge. Internet access is very restricted in school and his creche so no worries there. My credit card is pretty much always maxed out anyway so not too much of a worry for me that himself will go wild spending on it

Point is, supervise the little angels or look what they are capable of doing.

Your 11 year old goes to a creche ???

Warper

m@cc@ wrote: »

At the same time, how simple must the 12-year-old be? I'd like to think I had a concept of money at that age.

This kid knows all about the concept of money. After all he used someone elses money to buy what he wanted - he will go far.

Sykk

AAAAAAaaahahahahahahahahahhahhaha

inforfun

Deleted User wrote: »

Why all the restriction? Just get a program to block the bad sites and let him surf in peace.. You sound way too overprotective.

I am not disagreeing with you but lets not forget that most 11 year olds know their way around a pc way better than their parents ever will.
So keeping an eye on the kid might not be the worst idea.

Keeping your credit card close to you too...

we'llallhavetea_old

i think the child is a little bollocks.

and facebook should take some blame too, the credit card should match the name on the account.

opinion guy

generalmiaow wrote: »

You do need to let them explore but that software usually blocks mainly pornography, which is less of a concern for an 11 year old, it's more the worry that they will accidentally post their address on the internet or something, or find After Hours and start saying yore ma all the time.

Actually i disagree with this. For one thing i think 11 year olds are plenty aware of sex. If I recall correctly in my primary school we had already had sex ed classes by this stage (thou we had already heard of sex of course - i don't want to give the impression the sex ed was to early - it wasn't, it was timely i woudl say), and some of the kids had porno mags obtained from older siblings (of course the kids with older siblings were even more aware of sex than those without)
Anyhow - the point is. i think that this is exactly the age to be worried about that stuff. This is the age where they know a bit and are likely to be becoming more curious and possibly searching the next for stuff. And also an age where they are very impressionable and most likely to be affected by things they see i would think.

cynder

I have a 10 year old with a facebook account. Her dad is a software developer and keeps tabs on her movements not only on face book but other sites. She knows she isnt allowed to buy the farmville money she has asked and i explained it to her (that it is a rip-off). She also goes on to My zoo, fish ville and yoville. She only has relatives as friends.

I personally don't think facebook is bad, it depends on the person using it and how stupid they are. You control all your settings, don't add friends you don't know, control who sees your info and also photos.

opinion guy

Deleted User wrote: »

Why all the restriction? Just get a program to block the bad sites and let him surf in peace.. You sound way too overprotective.

In all fairness.... you're biased :P

Vegeta

My Mam is the max level on farmville. Never spent a penny on it though

Sanjuro

Jesus. At that age, I had to clean the garden or wash the car to get paid enough to buy a Malibu Barbie GI Joe action figure. My parents would have laughed me out of the house if I asked to use their credit card. Some parents are idots raising idiot kids.

Dravokivich

grindelwald wrote: »

I have a 10 year old with a facebook account. Her dad is a software developer and keeps tabs on her movements not only on face book but other sites. She knows she isnt allowed to buy the farmville money she has asked and i explained it to her (that it is a rip-off). She also goes on to My zoo, fish ville and yoville. She only has relatives as friends.

I personally don't think facebook is bad, it depends on the person using it and how stupid they are. You control all your settings, don't add friends you don't know, control who sees your info and also photos.

Alot of my younger cousins have been signed up to it by my auntie as well, only with relatives as "friends" but sure alot of em are so young and probably only seen me once or twice, they wouldn't know who I am.

I'm kind of curious though... well... in regards to how my auntie might be explaining some of my status updates... hmm... might advise her on how to set it as "hidden"...