Microtransactions in video games are one of the biggest debate topics in the community. While it’s true that when handled properly, they can add to a game and give developers an extra revenue stream, they’ve also been abused by developers and publishers, which has made gamers incredibly wary of certain franchises due to their microtransaction-heavy nature. With a game like Roblox, microtransactions are everywhere, and they change depending on the game in question. To be fair, you never have to buy them to advance through a game or enjoy the content, but you’re “incentivized” to do so, so you can beat the games more quickly or get cool clothing to deck out your avatar.
In theory, that’s totally fine and legal. However, there are “catches” that you have to be looking out for, and one mother from South Wales learned the hard way that one of those “catches” is that it can be incredibly easy for a nine-year-old to make purchases without realizing she was doing them. Said child was playing on the mother’s iPad, as noted by Yahoo, and over the course of three months, she apparently racked up about 1000 Euros of purchases by getting just 25 items!
Naturally, the mother tried to get some of her money back, but it became clear quickly that the company wasn’t going to help her out:
“I was upset at myself. At that point I held out hope but as time went on I just felt sick to the stomach and angry that such a big corporation can’t understand the financial difficulty this put me in.”
The reason that the daughter had been able to do the purchases without consent was due to how the mother’s PayPal account was linked to the iPad itself, and that allowed the daughter to easily make purchases…because she didn’t know she was spending real money.
“These Robux [Roblox coins] kids don’t see it as money. It is coins and a gaming app. They don’t connect that that is money you have got to pay for.”
Just as bad was that, due to her location, the PayPal transfers from her bank account weren’t immediate; they were delayed about a week, so she couldn’t catch on to what was happening quickly and ensure that it didn’t happen again. Plus, despite going through the proper channels to get refunds via PayPal and Apple, she wasn’t able to get the vast majority of her money back.
She warns other parents not to make her mistakes and ensures that their kids don’t do the same thing.
