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Be afraid. It's another Facebook horror story.
I just read about little Megan Fox, a 7-year-old in England who, while playing PetVille on her parents’ Facebook account, spent $400 on virtual pet care. Yes, virtual, as in not even real.
A couple of obvious questions spring to mind, like What’s "virtual pet care"? and Why does a 7-year-old have access to $400 to buy it? I can’t really answer the first (because I’m afraid to log on), but I can tell you that the money wasn’t hers to spend. PetVille is a Facebook game, and because this second-grade spendthrift was playing on her parents’ Facebook account, she was connected to her father’s PayPal account (which he’d forgotten to log out of). Snap!
Megan must have bought some really fly clothes and furniture for her virtual pet with that $400.
It’s kind of funny in retrospect (kind of), because the Fox parents, who were cluelessly sitting right next to their daughter while she went on her spending spree, actually gave fashion advice whenever Megan asked, having no idea that she was spending their hard-earned ducats.
I’ve spent many an hour in Webkinz land with my own 6-year-old, and I know that she would love to have an endless amount of Kinzcash. In fact, she often asks if there is an easier way to get some scratch than actually earning the Webkinz money through games and trivia contests. You can buy your kid some virtual cash, but I haven’t sunk that low yet. I also know that my kid has very little idea how commerce really works. Should my own credit card pop up, she’d be off and shopping without ever looking back.
The truth is, every time we log in to check on my daughter’s computer-generated menagerie, I’m still a little squeamish about her obsession with hanging out in these virtual terrains. Wouldn’t it be more fun to build a fort, read a book, ride a bike, or just play with real toys?
Although I wish my kids preferred to jump on the bed rather than on the laptop, they don’t. So, I try to find a good balance, reasoning computers aren’t going anywhere, and that, of course, I want my girls to be comfortable and conversant in the computer world. But damn, I’ve got to get seriously vigilant. $400 on some little cartoons would push me over the edge.
Do you give your kids real money to spend in virtual worlds?
Image via whiteafrican/Flickr
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Comments (21)
No way, hell I play a lot of games on facebook myself but I get to a point where enough is enoug when they start trying to charge me real money to buy cool game items and they try to real you in by making the best looking stuff cost real money. Bottom line my families needs are more important than the needs of a virtual pet, farm, dress up doll or whatever. I think it's really sad that online game developers charge real money for bullshit!
I was paying 6 dollars a month for Club Penguin, but my kid didn't go on all that much, and the payment went out automatically from my bank account. I finally cancelled it a couple of days ago. The kids can earn virtual cash by playing the little contests and things, but seeing they have a short attention span, they lost interest after awhile. I wonder if any of Meagan's parents could get a refund somehow?
I wonder how convenient the parents NOW find it to use the computer as a babysitter. Sure, they were sitting right there ...but they were unaware as to what the child was doing and most likely barely interacting with her, simply not wanting to be bothered.
I most certainly hope there is no refund available!
There's a reason why the makers of Facebook put "you will not use Facebook if you are under 13" in their terms of service.
Wow, lots of judging going on for these parents. I think it's fine that their 7 year old was playing with their "supervision", and can easily see how they didn't think twice about what she was doing on Farmville. It's when adults play Farmville that I start to wonder about their actions.
I left my Amazon.com account up one time, while looking for gift ideas for my kids for Christmas. Went to the bathroom, came back out within 3 minutes, and my 4 year old had ordered a $100 Lego set with the convenient "One Click" option, lol. Fortunately I caught it fast and was able to cancel the order - it only gives you 30 minutes to do so - and it was my own damn fault for not thinking.
I let my son play games on Facebook. I set him up his own profile so that I could completely block and control everything he saw and did -- something I CAN'T do if he's on MY profile. He likes Petville, Pet Society, Crazy Planets (robots with rockets) and Happy Pets. So scary, right? Anyway, ONE time I let him use real money, on his birthday, to get some "exclusive' Happy Pets guy. I didn't realize it stored my info, and he'd hit some button and bought about... $40 more. So yeah, we spent $60 on a game, only $20 of it intentionally. So what? :)
No, I'm not sitting there watching everything he does, most of the time. I'm not watching every single click to feed his pet, wash it, dress it, play with it. I don't do that when he plays with his toys either. If I can hear the music of the game, and the sounds of interaction ON the game, why am I going to assume he's doing anything else? Kids don't need their parents looking over their shoulder every millisecond.
I made sure I removed my card info though, and I think they need to make sure it's clear that the info is stored until you remove it... which is a feature I don't like anyway.
that is retarted especially when the animal isnt even real. what a waste.