13-year-old spends Dh235,071 on online gaming in China, nearly empties mother’s bank account

The mother found out about her daughter's spending after her teacher told her that the teenager was addicted to games

Trends Desk

Published: Wed 14 Jun 2023, 3:56 PM

Last updated: Fri 16 Jun 2023, 1:54 PM

A teenage girl in China spent $64,000 (Dh2,35,071) on online gaming, nearly emptying her mother’s bank account. The 13-year-old, who is addicted to gaming, used her mother’s debit card to buy games for herself and for her classmates, according to South China Morning Post.

The school student hails from the Henan province of central China and would spend significant time playing games on her smartphone. In order to make in-app purchases and buy more games, the girl spent money from her mother’s bank account over a period of four months and ultimately left just $0.07 (Dh0.26) in it, reported Elephant News.

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According to the girl’s mother, Wang, the teenager also deleted the entire transaction history on her phone to hide the purchases. Wang learned about the spending after her daughter’s teacher told her that the teen could be addicted to playing online games.

Following this, the mother went through her bank account statements and discovered that Dh2,35,071 was missing. When the girl was asked about the shopping by her father, the little one said that she spent $17,000 or 1,21,099 yuan (Dh62,440) on buying games, 210,000 yuan (Dh1,08,279) on in-game purchases, and 1,00,000 yuan (Dh51,561) for buying games for at least 10 of her classmates, South China Morning Post report added.

The girl said that “despite feeling reluctant” she bought games for her classmates when they asked for it and was cared to seek help from teachers. She claimed that she did not understand where the money came from but remembered linking a debit card she found at home to her mobile phone. The student also knew the password her mother had shared with her earlier.

The incident caught a lot of attention on Chinese social media where many reacted to it. One person said that it was the “parents’ own fault” while another claimed that the girl knew what she was doing but did not want to admit it”, the South China Morning Post added.

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