PETALING JAYA, Jan 14 — A Filipino boy gave his parents a rude shock recently after he accidentally spent a small fortune on gaming apps.
Businesswoman Julmar Grace Locsin was going through her bank statements one day when she discovered that her son Tice, aged eight, had spent 100,000 pesos (RM8,411) on mobile downloads and in-app purchases.
A screenshot she shared on Facebook shows several transactions ranging from RM8 to RM480 that were made to mobile game developers earlier this month.
She wrote in the caption that Tice bought the games on his father’s old smartphone which he received as a hand-me-down gift last Christmas
“We control their tech time. They are only allowed two hours a day of mobile phones and the apps they are allowed to use are only Superbook, Messenger Kids, and War Robots, especially for Tice because he loves robots.
“He would like to be a robotics expert in the future, so this is for us a way to empower that interest.
“I think within the app, you can buy certain stuff. So he started with that. Then he started to download the paid versions and other games as well,” Locsin told Philippine news portal Inquirer.net.
THAT MOMENT WHEN OUR SON SPENT AT LEAST P40,000 ON MOBILE GAMES!!! 😭😅😱 Tabang Lord! Haha. So this happened to us. One...
Posted by Julmar Grace Locsin on Wednesday, January 6, 2021
Locsin explained that Tice had broken his promise not to download other apps online and this eventually spiralled into a spending spree that saw him blowing RM8,411 on 58 games and other in-app purchases.
In her Facebook post, Locsin said that Tice found the gaming apps on his father’s old smartphone “too easy” which prompted him to break the rules and download more challenging games.
Locsin and her husband then sat Tice and his twin brother down to give them a talk about the importance of obeying the rules set by one’s parents.
“When asked after, (Tice) reasoned that the old games were too easy for him and he thought all the downloads were free.
“He cried a lot after we talked about it and forgave him. He was very sorry (and was too cute with those irresistible eyes).
“We explained that they are worth more than all the money in the world but following rules is also a good life skill to abide,” Locsin wrote.
The couple has since added parental controls and a password to make purchases on their accounts in order to deter similar incidents in the future.
They have also requested refunds for the purchases made by Tice but have yet to receive any money back into their accounts.
