13-year-old girl spends her Chinese family’s life savings spending $64,000 on mobile phone games
- The teenager’s mother, Gong Yiwang, found that she had only seven cents left in her account.
- Schoolgirl deleted chat and transaction logs to hide them from her parents
A 13-year-old girl in China managed to spend a staggering $64,000 on mobile phone games in just a few months, wiping out her parents’ life savings without their knowledge.
The teen’s mother, Gong Yiwang, only found out her account had been ransacked after her daughter’s boarding school teachers called her to say they were worried she was addicted to video games.
When Gong went to check her bank account, she found that only seven cents were left after the girl’s spending spree, which lasted from January to May of last year.
“I never thought that a 13-year-old girl could do this,” she told China’s Elephant News television station. I am stunned; my head feels like it’s going to explode.
The girl, who has not been named, managed to empty the account and hide the payments, deleting chat and transaction logs to hide them from her parents.
A 13-year-old girl in China managed to spend a staggering $64,000 on mobile phone games in just a few months (file image)
Gong’s daughter not only spent her parents’ money on games for herself, but also spent on in-game purchases for her friends.
The young woman was devastated when her story was exposed, telling Elephant News that her schoolmates pestered her to send them money.
‘If I didn’t send it to them, they’d pester me all day. If he told the teacher, I was afraid that the teacher would tell my parents and my parents would be angry,” she said through tears.
The waster managed to rack up a £16,800 bill for game accounts, a £30,000 bill for in-game purchases, and sent money to ten of his classmates, bringing the total cost to £68,000.
The story of the incredible months-long spending spree went viral on Chinese social media, racking up 140 million views on Weibo, Insider reports.
The Chinese government views Internet addiction as a clinical disorder and has for years worked to curtail gaming, previously described as “spiritual opiate.”
In 2021, Chinese authorities banned minors from playing online games on weekdays (file image)
Last year, the regulatory body, the China Gaming Industry Group Committee, claimed to have succeeded in curbing gaming addiction among youth through a series of strict laws across the industry.
In 2021, Chinese authorities banned minors from playing online games, cutting their daily allowance to just one hour a day and only on Fridays, weekends, and holidays.
As early as 2008, China’s Ministry of Health began viewing Internet addiction as a clinical disorder, characterized by staying online for more than six hours a day and having adverse reactions to not being online.
A 2018 report published in the Journal of Behavioral Addictions found that nearly 12 percent of Chinese college students had an Internet addiction disorder, which it called an impulse control disorder, “similar to eating disorders, gambling pathological… and other addictions”.
According to the General Administration of Press and Publication of China, 14 percent of Chinese children, including 33 million children under the age of 16, are obsessed with the Internet.
I am Rakesh Sharma, I associated with Elite News as an Editor, since 2021. I take care of all the news operations like content, budget, hiring and policy making.