Yes, Timmy, Spending Money In Virtual Worlds Ends Up With A Real World Bill
from the funny-money dept
NetSafe, New Zealand's Internet safety group, warns that parents may be shocked to learn that their children's purchases in virtual worlds rack up real world charges on their credit cards. They warn that in virtual worlds like Second Life, it is possible to quickly run up huge credit card bills -- real money is spent when buying real estate, avatars, and clothing in the game. NetSafe used to discourage youths from spending any money in these virtual worlds, but has since changed their policy. They reason that while they might not understand the need for someone to buy a virtual good, it is not their place to judge where people spend their money. They stress instead that the most important lesson is for parents to set limits on their children's spending habits, but this seems pretty much like common sense parenting, and not something specific for online spending. Then again, our increasingly digital world has made it more difficult to teach children the value of a dollar. And with kids spending thousands of dollars on real estate that only exists in cyberspace, that lesson may get even harder to teach.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: parenting, virtual worlds
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If you're going to sign your kids up to some service you should be smart enough to look into the possibility that they can keep spending on it without you knowing about it.
Yet another story of people too lazy or stupid to research what they're doing and getting ripped off by big business out to make a buck at any cost!
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Re:
So lazy or stupid people are at fault or 'big business'.... You do know businesses exist to make money right? If someone is so stupid that they spend until they are broke, how is that the fault of the business?
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I realize some games link to a credit card account, but alas - that's where a pre-paid card comes in.
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surprise?
That's really all one needs to say about this.
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Pyramid scheme
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Kids & virtual spending
The parents who give their kids this kind of spending ability, be it virtual world or cellular, need to get their heads examined. Very few kids who receive phones/virtual world accounts have the real-world experience to allow them to make judicious use of these things, and subsequently wind up racking up astronomical bills.
As Earl Pitts would say, "Wake up America!"
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Shocked!
I'm shocked, I tell you, shocked!
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Parents not Parenting
Problem #2 - Some parents these days are too busy, lazy or stupid to raise kids correctly and never should have had any to begin with.
Problem #3 - Some kids don't have any respect for their parents or other "adult types" because of Problem #2.
Problem #4 - Businesses target kid's because they know they will get the money somehow to buy their product or service. Just a fact, not a complaint.
Solution - None.
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Real world money?
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Re: Real world money?
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Re: Real world money?
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Online sites make it easy to screw up
I gave up the text messaging battle with my kids - I got the unlimited texting package for all my phones. The bad news is its more money out of my pocket - the good news is my bill is the same month to month.
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Why do kids have credit card numbers?
If they really "need" a credit card, get them their own bank account and a debit card. Or, get them a Visa cash card with a set amount of money that goes away, and look online to see where it's being spent. It's not hard.
And no, I didn't grow up in any era before credit cards were widely used. It didn't equate to my parents GIVING THEIR CREDIT CARD NUMBERS TO MY BROTHER AND I, however. Stupidity. They got us debit cards when we were about 13, we made deposits, we used them, we each overdrew our accounts once or twice, and we learned - and no, my parents didn't pay the fees or bail us out. Good to learn before we got to college.
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Re: Why do kids have credit card numbers?
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