A 9-year-old Minecraft player has reportedly spent over $100,000 on their father’s credit card. The discovery came as a major shock, and now the young Minecraft fan is in significant hot water.
Myriads of Minecraft players have plenty of fun with the game without ever opening their wallets. There are optional purchases that fans can make to add new content and cosmetics, but ultimately, the core game keeps many players satisfied, and Minecraft mods can help to further expand the game without spending more. However, this particular case didn’t actually involve handing money directly to Minecraft.
Minecraft Player Digs a Deep Debt Hole
A young Minecraft fan got the idea of uploading gameplay of his playthroughs after watching YouTube streamers. It started out innocently, with the child sharing footage on a channel called Mighty Mike Plays, with permission from his father. However, he’s now in serious trouble after racking up over $100,000 in credit card bills. His father, David Sarkisyan, has taken over the YouTube channel and explained in a video that it is shutting down, at least temporarily, after he was made aware of massive charges on his company’s credit card. Unfortunately, the father apparently made a grave mistake of using the company card to help promote the child’s YouTube account. What started out as a humble $20 ad spend quickly grew out of control after the child went in after the fact and removed the limit. Unfortunately, this has also led to the child’s father getting in serious trouble at work, with the impact on his employment yet to be determined.
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David claims that the insane amount of money spent on the advertising campaign was kept completely secret from him. Under normal circumstances, a credit card would have a limit on how much could be spent, and would likely alert the cardholder to the massive charges long before they’d reached this point. However, due to it being a company credit card, the card was essentially unlimited, and the charges supposedly went unnoticed for three weeks. While it’s far from the first time that a kid has spent tons of money on games without their parents’ permission or knowledge, the company card makes this a rather unique situation.
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Image via Mojang -
image via Mojang -
Image via Mojang
David has said that some kind of punishment is in order for his child, but surprisingly, isn’t as angry about it as one might expect. He notes in the video that he isn’t blaming the child for what happened, saying that the kid didn’t fully understand that the advertising campaign used real money. That same claim has been made by some other kids who have spent their parents’ money on video games without permission, though several people in the comments section are expressing disbelief, saying that a 9-year-old is more than old enough to understand financial responsibility. However, utilizing a company credit card for a personal purchase like this was undoubtedly a mistake that David won’t be making again in the future.
Some responding to the video have expressed doubt about the whole thing, with some wondering if it’s an elaborate ruse to drum up attention for the channel. If that were the case, it’s certainly worked, as the Mighty Mike Plays channel has exploded in subscribers and views, with over 62,000 subscribers and over half a million views on the dad’s video thus far. If nothing else, it’s a good reminder to use parental controls in games and online, and to not use anything but a personal credit card for personal purposes like this one.
- Released
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November 18, 2011
- ESRB
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E10+ For Everyone 10+ Due To Fantasy Violence