Day 216: Children Seduced to Spend Real Money on Games

"A schoolboy has unwittingly racked up a £2,000 credit card bill playing an online game on his grandfather’s iPad.

Six-year-old Will Smith was innocently playing the popular children’s video game Tiny Monsters until his grandfather Barry Slatter, 55, was contacted by the fraud squad.

The family was unaware of little Will’s huge spending spree until his grandmother tried to use the credit card at Tesco, only to have it declined."

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2205555/Schoolboy-massive-credit-card-playing-iPad-Tiny-Monsters-app.html#ixzz2RDDz9inE

"A 12-year-old boy accidentally ran up a £1,500 bill while playing Xbox Live - leaving his cash-strapped dad with no choice but to pick up the tab.

Sam Ghera's son Nik thought he was using up game points every time he 'improved' his characters while playing Call of Duty and Fifa.

However, with each click he was actually purchasing an online currency - which was draining money from his dad's account."

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2171930/X-Box-Live-Boy-playing-Call-Duty-Fifa-ran-1-150-bill.html#ixzz2RDEEp7N7

More and more children's video games provide the option to buy additional features or short-cuts in the games with real money. Many of these games work with virtual currency as part of the game, but then switch to ask for real money for certain purchases. No need to say that children have a tendency to mix up imagination with reality. The difference between the two is simply not very obvious to them. Especially, when we're looking at Gaming Apps on touchscreen devices - where the characters of the game can actually be touched and moved by their finger. So - to expect a child to understand the difference between virtual money and real money - where real money is nothing more than numbers on a screen in the first place - is quite far-reaching.

So, what is the deal with these games where it is extremely easy for children to make real purchases on their parents' account? Are they trying to trick children to purchases they don't realize they're making - having children give money to a company - money which isn't even theirs? Having children doing the stealing for the company? Or is it about molding children to become the future generation of consumers? Where they learn to spend virtual money in a game and find that it is so easy - but then, as soon as real money comes in the picture, the parents deny them the right to buy what they want with real money. Then the child holds a grudge and they promise themselves that as soon as they have their own money, of which they can decide how they want to spend it - that they will always buy whatever they want to buy - creating the perfectly manipulable consumer. Because then, all that needs to be done is to spark a desire - and there you have it, an eager buyer.

Here is another example:

"Facebook has been accused of creating ‘tomorrow’s generation of problem gamblers’ by rolling out real money casino games.

Under a lucrative deal with online gaming company 888, the social networking giant will offer Las Vegas-style slot machines and games such as roulette and blackjack.

The move heralds a major expansion of its gambling sites.

Gamers will be able to place up to £500 on bets using a credit or debit card with promises of jackpots worth tens of thousands of pounds.

These will only be available in the UK, where gaming laws are more relaxed than in the US. Both Facebook and 888 insist they have safeguards to prevent minors from accessing the games.

These include checking the credit card details used against both their Facebook profile and the electoral register.

But there is nothing to stop children logging on to parents’ accounts and using card details already stored on the family computer. Already, Facebook users as young as 13 can use virtual slot machines on the website to win ‘credits’ – which have no monetary value.

But as soon as they turn 18, millions of children who use the social networking site will be bombarded with adverts for real money gambling games.

Facebook has three million UK users aged between 13 and 17. But a further one million are thought to be under 13 and pretending to be older.

Any of these could already be playing the ‘free’ slot and bingo games – which critics say form gambling habits because they simulate the thrill of hitting the jackpot.

More than a million people are already signed up to play 888’s free bingo game Bingo Island – although not all of these are UK based. They have to pay for online credits to play, but cannot win any real money back.
Concern: Critics worry users, including children using parents credit card details, will get hooked on the casino-style games

Yesterday 888 launched its first real money bingo application, with promises to roll out casino games. Critics fear many will be attracted to the new games to try to win money back, after experiencing the unrealistic odds offered on the free versions.

‘You win virtually every time you play one of the free games,’ said Mark Griffiths, professor of gambling studies at Nottingham Trent University.

‘Research has shown again and again that one of the biggest factors in developing problem gambling is playing free games online first. These children and teenagers today are the problem gamblers of tomorrow.’

He warned the deal with 888 could cause ‘the floodgates to open’ as gambling companies dive into the social media frenzy to make money. It is thought Facebook will take a 30 per cent cut of all bets placed.

In August, Facebook launched its first ‘real money’ gambling game with Bingo Friendzy, which offers bingo and slot machines. But the deal, done with Gamesys Group, is relatively small compared with the potential influx of gambling giants who could queue up to join Facebook if the venture proves to be profitable.

Itai Frieberger, chief operating officer of 888, said: ‘Our Facebook play for fun offerings have found a significant audience, and we are very excited by the opportunity real money gaming on Facebook provides.’ He said the company would prevent users who are under 18 on Facebook from even seeing the games.

A spokesman for Facebook said Bingo Friendzy players are subject to ‘strict account acceptance controls verifying their identity, and that they are over 18 and located in the UK.’ Gambling will not be promoted to Facebook members registered as under 18, it added.

Any of these could already be playing the ‘free’ slot and bingo games – which critics say form gambling habits because they simulate the thrill of hitting the jackpot."

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2247087/Fury-Facebook-online-casinos-Social-network-tempting-young-gamble-new-betting-games.html#ixzz2RDWYaO3H

If capitalism, as it says, is all about the freedom of the individual and about making your own choices - then how come an army of consumer-addicts is being created?

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Day 8: Consuming Children as Commodities

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to blame economic theorists for treating children like consumption goods or commodities within their theoretic models, while empirical studies actually show that this truly is how parents make their decision in terms of having a child or another child - where children are treated as any other consumption good.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise the implication of this point; that parents plan to consume their children in order to obtain personal satisfaction.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that a child is not something to be consumed and that the decision of having a child should not rest on the expected satisfaction I'll be able to derive from having a child.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that having children has always been selfish - to fulfil the parents' life, to gain more satisfaction, to have a feeling of accomplishment, etc - without even considering if you would want to have yourself as a mother or a father - only ever considering my wants, my needs, my desires.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise the craziness of the current economic system where the whole system spins based on individuals attempting to satisfy their wants, needs and desires - up to the point where children are but another way of attaining a sense of fulfillment.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to be abhorred at the idea of child trade, where children are traded like an item on a market - not realising that in the very decision to have a child, a parent does the exact same thing, treating a child like a commodity, where a parent tries to answer the question of how much the child is worth to them and what they're willing to trade in order to have a child.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that making the decision to have a child in this way, is actually supporting the manifestation of child trade in this world.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to value everything and everyone within my world and the world in general in terms of how much I'm willing to pay for it and how much benefit and personal satisfaction I would be able to obtain from it - always making value-judgments from a self-interested perspective, not realising that life is inherently valuable, independent of me.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to be surprised when the actual experience of having a child is disappointing, while this shouldn't come as a surprise because an expectation was created based on a desire in terms of how well the child would 'quench a thirst' within self and in the same way where if we buy something it is always expected to be 'more' than what the actual experience is of obtaining, using or consuming the good, where we eventually get tired of the item and want to move on to something more exciting - the experience of having children won't correspond to what we had expected.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that if I make the decision of having a child based on how well the child will satisfy my personal wants, needs and desires, I shouldn't have children in the first place - because the actual experience of having a child will be nothing like what I had expected it to be - yet, contrary to stuff that you buy and get tired of after a while as using or consuming it doesn't provide you with the same amount of satisfaction that it initially did - you can't just toss children in the garbage can or bring them back to the shop for a refund.

I commit myself to the redefinition of the word value, where value is no longer defined in terms of the expected satisfaction, fulfillment and gratification something will yield me, but stands in relation to the value of life itself.

I commit myself to creating a world where the decision to have children will no longer be limited and determined by money.

I commit myself to educating parents and prospective parents so that they may see and understand that children are not just commodities with which to fulfill oneself, but are actual beings that require your support and your assistance to develop themselves as effectively as possible to be able to live a fulfilling life of their own.

I commit myself to show how humanity has accepted and allowed children to become part of the definition of life that has been presented through consumerism as that which is acquired through money as but an external representation of completion / fulfillment / purpose for the individual that give the individual an experience of completion / fulfillment / purpose, where having a child / raising a family has become but part of the consumer's process of the pursuit of happiness which is the pursuit of acquiring goods / things such as a home, a car, a husband / wife, an education, a bank account, a retirement plan, a vacation home, a lifestyle, a social group, so that one can view one's self in comparison with others as having accomplished the 'building of a life' -- where, in this process of the pursuit of happiness as 'building a life', one was so consumed with consuming the pursuit of happiness / building a life that one lost sight of the fact that one brought into this world a living being that had the opportunity to grow into the best possible human it could be that could take responsibility for this world -- an opportunity that was stolen from the child by the parent when the parent passed on the pursuit of happiness / acceptance of the consumerist system to the child.

I commit myself to stop accepting and allowing myself to consume life in my own pursuit of happiness, and stop accepting and allowing everyone else to consume life in the pursuit of happiness.

I commit myself to show how through the media in movies, TV, commercials, life is presented as the pursuit of happiness as the accomplishment of building a life through consumerism and that this presentation / definition of life is used to brainwash humans to occupy themselves with the pursuit of fulfilling a picture in their mind of what life is, to distract them from the abuse that goes on daily in the name of profit for the few.

I commit myself to show how the human allows itself to be brainwashed by the media to occupy itself with feelings of accomplishment and achievement through consumerism because it is too afraid to stand and stop allowing abuse - and to show how the parent then passes on this pattern to the child, producing another consumer engineered by those who abuse life in the name of profit.

I commit myself to value Life instead of the pursuit of accomplishment as it has been presented to me through the media / consumerism as the acquisition of goods.

I commit myself to re-define accomplishment as the creation of a world that is best for all, and to give a world that is best for all to my child so that my child can fulfill its potential as a responsible being that cares for life.

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