Technology

Legally, the kid wasn't old enough to contract the ads.

It would not stand in court.

I question using his work card to pay for some robucks for his kid.

I question that his credit card was saved for Robucks, but was able to be used on Google Ads.

I would not be surprised if he lost his job. I think that's not unreasonable though the economy sucks.

Right?

I swear people hearing stories like this want the absolute worst outcomes for everyone possible with 0 empathy.

He likely used the company credit card once, got some pop-up and instinctively clicked "yes" as most people do causing the card to be saved to the browser.

I'm sure the dad will find a way to reverse the damage (or at least greatly minimize it) and both will have learned their lesson.

I watched Charlie's video on this and the dad takes a lot of the ownership of what happened and how having all your accounts connected via Google can backfire spectacularly when the only thing the kid really understands from this is, more money = more views, and "dad set a limit" so as long as the card clears, it must be good to go. Crazy story.

IMO that's not the issue

The issue is the lack of safeguards. In our rush to call out the dad based on the headline, we shouldn't let Google and the banks off the hook. ~~The dad should have set limits on the card/account~~ and paid closer attention to the kid's view/ad activities, but both google and the banks benefitted from the poor design/usability issues that led to this.

EDIT: Since it was the company card, maybe the dad couldn't have set limits on there. He used the company card on an older purchase, and since it was tied to his account, google offered the card as a payment option when the kid went to boost his ad. While I'm at it, screw the advertising industry that made YouTube into the mess it is now.

As for this bit

why is a 9 year old even allowed to post to YouTube

I remember about 15 years ago, a lot of kids wanted to post gameplay videos and music/art they made to YouTube. Some parents handled that poorly yes, but others took the time to watch the videos and approve them before anything was uploaded.

Kids want to explore their interests and it can be healthy to explore it with them, and teach them things along the way. Telling them no outright might push them to do it anyway, but this time without supervision.

Parents don’t parent anymore.

Might as well have been a teaching moment.

"Here's 20 bucks, let's run some ads and see how it impacts your channel"

"Didn't change much? Well, wouldn't you rather spend that money on something else instead?"

Part of teaching kids about the Internet is showing what ads are, the way companies use them and that there's always a reason you're getting shown them

As a kid I wanted some shitty toy and my mom went "well, if that's what you want to spend your allowance on, sure. But I think it's probably not as good as you think", only for me to realize that she was right after I got it

It was the dad who entered the card number. It was his fault. He created a Google advertising profile, but his business card on it, and then handed the reins to a child.

The biggest issue here is that dad thought he could embezzle $20 at a time, but accidentally did $120k all at once. lol. lmao even.

Lack of constant online surveillance is a good thing, btw. Expecting Google to have caught this doesn't make any sense.

In your comparison, the store would not see that it was a 9 year old

It was the Google account of the dad, and he stored the company's card in his account payment details

And spending 100k on something is not unusual for a company card, or a big company running an ad campaign

You should also look up what astroturfing actually is

Fuck Google, but if you're advocating for them to do identity and age verification before buying services imma have to disagree

Why would a $120k spend on a business card (entered by the cardholder on an advertising account under their name) be suspicious?

This doesn't follow the pattern of a stolen card at all.

EDIT: Dad set up the YT brand account using his employer's Google Workspace. He handed all his work emails and sensitive auth to the kid too. Dad is stupid as fuck.

• 9 yo Kid is making vidya
• Doesn't have many viewers
• Want to make kid happy
• Spend 20 $ on ads
• maybe_a_couple_views.png
• Three weeks later
• I'm literally 118 009 $ in debt

MFW

Honestly, if you can't understand how absolutely debilitating this is over a tiny misstep, I hardly know what to say. People commit manslaughter and get off easier that this. It's in no way reasonable to say that "Oh, you shouldn't have used the company card to pay 20$ for your kid - you deserve life-ruining debt".

Blame the dad

Honestly, it shouldn't be legal to pull more than like 100 USD off a card without re-verifying the card holder. Fuck these companies that take your card once and have no fucking limit on how much they'll pull from it without verifying it's you.

Sure, you should have a limit on your card. That doesn't make it okay for others to exploit you when you make an obvious mistake. Let's not pretend these companies aren't aware how much money they're making off people's kids spending more money than they're allowed to.

Roblox keeps the kid occupied and thus makes dad more efficient at his job. It's a legit expense.

I was thinking the same thing... At my job if you have a company card, you have to explain ever cent spent on it every month at a minimum. How did he not have a difficult conversation with someone when he bought fucking Robux on the company card??