A 13-year-old girl spent her family’s fortune on video games. The girl, who is from China, spent approximately $64,000 on pay-to-play mobile video games. Imagine if that was your child. As John Quiñones would say, “What would you do?”
The teen, who is in secondary school, had access to her mother’s debit card. She also knew the pin, as her mom gave it to her in case of an emergency. But this 13-year-old decided to use the card otherwise.
She was on a five-month spending spree on these games, and her parents had no idea what she was up to. The teenager was caught when the teacher noticed how much time she was spending on her phone. Out of concern, the teacher called her mom.
13-year-old Girl Spent Her Family’s Fortune on Video Games
It was reported that the mother, Gong Yiwang, checked her bank and found it contained just seven cents (or 0.5 yuan.).
The girl admitted spending about $17,000 on games and roughly $29,526 on in-app purchases. She also bought games for her friends as well.
The student said, “When they asked me to pay for their games, I paid despite feeling reluctant. If I didn’t send it to them, they would bother me all day. If I told the teacher, I was afraid that the teacher would tell my parents and that my parents would be angry.”
You think?
She also stated that “she didn’t understand much about money or where it came from.” But she knew how to delete the chat records and payment transactions, which she did to hide the evidence of her spending.
Clearly, she understood what she was doing, as evidenced by her efforts to delete the recorded transactions.
“I never thought a 13-year-old girl could do this,” Yiwang told local TV outlet Elephant News, per Insider. “I’m in a daze; my head feels like it’s going to explode.”
“The mom has tried to get a refund from several payment companies but has yet to receive the full amount back.”
According to Reuters, “In September 2021, China banned under-18s from playing games for more than three hours a week.” Clearly, she did not get that memo, or she blatantly disregarded it. The China ban is due to recognizing these games’ addiction-like impact on youths.
Unfortunately, this 13-year-old is not the first to spend the family’s money on video games, ad she most likely won’t be the last.