8-year-old boy buys P100K worth of games using parent’s debit card

The parents of an 8-year-old boy in Davao were shocked when they found that the child bought P100,000 worth of mobile games using their debit card.

According to Julmar Grace Locsin, she was appalled when she discovered that one of her twins, Tice, unknowingly bought a hundred thousand pesos’ worth of mobile games on January 6.

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She said Tice was able to buy the games when the cell phone of her husband,  Jay Locsin, 35, was handed to their son.

“We control their tech time. They are only allowed two hours a day of mobile phones and the apps [that] 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,” Locsin told INQUIRER.net in an interview.

“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. We did put restrictions because we use Google Play in buying paid movies [and] he thought those are all free, so he went to the best options,” she added.

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She thought that her son only spent P40,000 but later found out that it was P100,000 for 58 games. She added they already asked for a refund, but not sure if they would still get the money.

8-year-old boy buys P100K worth of games using parent’s debit card

“I was really surprised and mad. I called both of them right away and asked them, with my voice already in a high tone. His initial explanation was the first version was ‘boring,’ so he went [on] to the better versions,” Locsin said as she recalled her initial reaction after she found out what happened.

“With this, I thought he disobeyed [our rule] because they were only allowed [to download] three apps. So I spanked him, maybe four to five times, then I called my husband who was [then] on his way back [home from a grocery run].”

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As a punishment, Julmar said Tice got some spanking and her husband talked to the twins about the value of obedience.

“Is finding out that the purchase is P100k changed our feelings for our kids? NOPE,” Locsin said on her Facebook post.