I don’t think there’s a single adult out there who hasn’t once opened up a bill to find the amount owing a little higher than they were anticipating. Particularly in this modern age of technology where things can be purchased with the pushing of a couple of buttons and the mere mention of ‘microtransactions’ is enough to get some parents rushing to check their bank balance!
In a report via Yahoo, however, this subject is again under the spotlight as one unfortunate dad found that his daughter had racked up a £4,642 bill by splurging on Roblox in-game currency!
Now, I’ll freely admit that in my youth I did a few things that landed my parents with some pretty notable (and unexpected) bills. Particularly when the internet first landed in our house! I’m still honestly amazed at how those 1p a minute dial-up calls ended up costing around £100 for the quarter! While I won’t go into details, let’s just say lessons were learned.
So, what went wrong here exactly? Well, Dad made the mistake of hooking up his daughter’s Roblox account to his bank details back in April. Specifically at the time to get her £4.99’s worth of in-game credit. Little did he (apparently) know though that this automatically linked his bank account to the game and, as such, his daughter was able to run rampant with microtransactions!
While she has since claimed she didn’t understand she was spending real money (likely the excuse I’d have given in her place) these £0.99’s here and £9.99’s there eventually wound up giving dad a bill of £4,642!
Well, the good news is that Roblox has refunded Dad and I daresay his daughter has probably been excluded from touching a smart device ever again! It is, however, yet another cautionary tale as to how dangerous some of these supposedly ‘free’ games can be. Particularly for parents who are happy to thrust them on their children as a convenient means of babysitting while not actually understanding what they really represent or, perhaps more accurately, how they really work! I mean, let’s be honest here, most things that claim to be free often aren’t without a few catches!
The short version and moral of the story though is that if you let your kids use a smartphone, make sure whatever apps or games they are using aren’t linked to your bank details! If they are, then who knows… I might be writing about you next time!
What do you think? Have you ever played Roblox? If so, what are your thoughts on the microtransactions? – Let us know in the comments!
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