$800 Minecraft Bill Leads to Felony Filing Against Ten-Year-Old

[Dragonbums]

This doesn't make any sense.

Minecraft only costs about $24.00 last time I checked.

Who/what the heck is he doing with that game to rack up that much cash?

As others have said, the only feasible thing I can think of is that he bought the game for his entire school or something.

 

[Fiad]

An article on Escapist that took place where I live?! But nothing ever happens in Nebraska!

But really how do you spend 800 bucks on Minecraft? Maybe merchandise?

 

[ThunderCavalier]

Can you imagine all of the skins he must have...?

In all seriousness, I hope this gets sorted out in a... rational manner. He's 10-year-old; I don't think he understands the severity of his spending.

 

[Gather]

Chances are the kid used the $800 to support a private server he plays on.

 

[Someone Depressing]

Minecraft is a stand-alone game. Not an MMORPG, or anything like that.. how do you pay $800 when it costs $25 at best?

This is just a case of adults not knowing enough about videogames; the bill's obviously fake, unless he bought t-shirts or something.

Besides, how do you prosecute a 10 year old? What the hell does a 10 year old have? A condom he bouhgt on a dare, some comic books, a laptop... I'm confused, I'm genuinely confused at to how America works. America is stupid.

 

[Andrew_C]

The original article gives very little detail. Basically that he spent $800 and he was playing Minecraft. It could even be because his gramma is on an ancient dial-up line (seeing as it the backend of nowhere). Those things could get very expensive very quickly.

 

[Raioken18]

My guess would be he was online and donating money to servers or something. A lot of servers have the ability to donate for ranks and privileges, etc. Even then that kinda money just on minecraft is pretty nuts but he's 10 maybe somebody told him to give a huge donation for something really cool (in a 10 year olds mind of course).

This is basically what I was thinking. One in particular which I'm pretty sure it is, and are renowned for allowing griefers back whenever they buy new ranks...

http://www.epicraft.com.au/ranks

Nothing to do with Mojang but a pay 2 win server aimed at children... Also "Donations" is a very loose term... Also they have multiple servers and the ranks only apply to a single server. So to unlock the full thing on each server is gunna rack you up a good $600 debt. If he got a few bans and kept "topping up" then he'd easily get to $800 quite quickly.

Also... the creative server... isn't creative unless you get the $150 one first XD

 

[camazotz]

There must indeed be more than meets the eye here. If only there were a...I dunno....journalist or something writing an article that they could do some follow-up research on. Hmmm.

 

[Gilhelmi]

Did the Grandmother KNOW that she was throwing the kid to the legal wolfs?

I know many elderly people, they do not understand that things work differently today then they did 30, 40 or 50 years ago. She may have heard "reverse the charges" and not understand that her grandchild was involved/get-in-trouble. She may have thought that they would reverse the charges, she would give back the stuff (she may not understood 'digital stuff'), and then punish the child herself.

This is not being rude to the elderly, but the world has changed so much in the shortest amount of time. Just in my short 30 years, the world has changed massively.

Off-topic: Lincoln is the capitol of Nebraska. Though it may still be considered a town by some.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

Even if you don't agree with this action, you have to admit that it'll teach him a lesson.

A good parent isn't afraid to play the bad guy in order to better their children, in my opinion of course.

 

[MysticSlayer]

Ehm, wait what? Here in the Netherlands, you have a special institute thingie for the punishment of minors, you don't get a criminal record and you have to do community service, tops. How come that's not the case there?

Normally minors don't get treated this harshly, but it also isn't unheard of for minors responsible for crimes like murder to face incredibly harsh charges. The system hardly goes without criticism over here, though, and situations like this, where a ten year old who likely didn't fully understand what he was doing, only add to the controversy. Unfortunately, we're so concerned about whether or not Democrats are Communists, whether or not Republicans are racist, and whether or not Joe Biden is insane that we really don't give the matter the consideration that it deserves.

OT: They should probably look into this more. If it was an issue of someone tricking the kid into giving them money for server privileges, then they should probably consider dealing with whoever exploited the kid. Even if it was all his fault, this incident should really just be used to teach him rather than ruining his life over something he did at ten. Seriously, he's not even old enough to fully understand his own actions and they're already planning to permanently stain his record? That's arguably worse than what the kid did because, unlike him, these people are actually expected to understand the weight of their actions.

 

[Salad Is Murder]

So I checked on Nebraska's laws. Looks like the range for felony theft is $500 to $1500, and is a Class IV felony, which is the lowest it gets before it hits misdemeanor and has no minimum penalty. On top of that it's going to be handed over to the juvenile courts and either plead down or the charges simply dropped.

Furthermore, I have been unable to find any substantial details or sources outside of the original piece published in the Lincoln Journal Star, as every other article about this simply links back to it, and they don't have any links or real sources posted other than police "referred" him to the Lancaster County Attorney's Office (which I can't confirm because it's past their business hours).

All things considered, this whole thing seems either fake or greatly exaggerated from what actually happened. The facts seem very fuzzy but designed to push all the buttons to manufacture outrage and generate page views.

EDIT ADD: While we're on the subject, I just want to point out to everyone that's freaking out saying minors get punished too harshly or the system is out of control. Look, everything is working the way it's supposed to, but the whole view is getting narrowed to just the juicy bits.

When charges get filed (by the police or wronged party) that's before it has shown up in a courtroom or in front of a jury or anything. The charges are what they are, and it's up to the next step of the system to determine if there's merit in the charges or if they're going to get altered to something else.

My friend Greg is a real estate attorney and he put it like this: "Sure, anyone can sue anyone for anything. What's legal and what isn't is a matter for the courts to decide; that's what they do. Someone has to take a look at these things and see if there were any laws broken or parties wronged or whatever but these guys aren't idiots. They throw out frivolous and bullshit cases and complaints everyday."

 

[Grabehn]

I've just never understood how so many kids tend to be this stupi. When I was 10 I didn't spent shit on games because I didn't haave any money of my own, so spending any amount seemed just plain retarded.

Ehm, wait what? Here in the Netherlands, you have a special institute thingie for the punishment of minors, you don't get a criminal record and you have to do community service, tops. How come that's not the case there?

Hang on... so in the Netherlands, that one place that most people that are not from there tend to consider one of the best places to live in, along with Sweden and Canada, doesn't have those problems? That's weird...

But in all seriousness, the US has this "people in jail gives you money" kinda thing, which is ALSO not a reality in most other countries, so that kind of explains it to me, but it's still weird to have a "parent" to get his kid charged with any kind of stuff like this.

 

[Sean951]

Odds are, they will put him in front of a very stern looking judge who will look down from his podium and ask him if he knows what he did. He will say yes, I accidentally spent lots of money with grammas credit card. The judge will ask him if the kid knows what he did was wrong and technically fraud/stealing/whatever. The kid will say yes sir, I'm very sorry sir. The judge will say good, I fine you $X for the court cost, case dismissed or whatever the jargon is, and everyone will go along their merry way,.

 

[Dogstile]

How does a ten year old get hold of an adult's credit card/details and then use it without notice.

How does a ten year old rack up a $800 bill over a month without anyone noticing?

Wouldn't you be concerned if your ten year old was so obsessed with a game to the level that they would spend so much? Where were the adults in this entire situation and how did they let it get so far?

Happened with my little brother, we usually have no money so we just assumed whatever money we had was going right out the door for a few weeks until we finally clocked on, your first thought to having no money is never "oh, its my family fucking me over".

The details were on the xbox from when my mum put them on and didn't realise that it was saving them and my brother doesn't have any concept of money. Especially as he plays games where he spends "money" all the time.

The last bit I agree with, but the first three are really, really easily explained.

 

[Darkness665]

Also, this happened in Nebraska. Where global warming doesn't exist and video games will rot your brain.

And Granny didn't necessarily understand the full ramifications of the police report. Several states have a $1K limit for felony, and an age limit. Maybe Nebraska feels that if you are old enough to work on a farm you should get the full treatment. Not living there looks better every single time I see them in the news.

 

[Strazdas]

These stories always make me question, how stupid must the parent be to give a 10 year old free access to their credit card. But ok, a 75 year old grandma may just not know the things so well after all no credit cards in her youth existed. Still, it seems that parents end up really irresponsibly here. at least this time thier not blaming minecraft or something like that.

I did it back in the early 80s -

Andly, i am dissapoint

...When did Minecraft introduce the ability to spend more money than the base purchase?

My best guess is probate server microtransactions. ive been in servers that go "pay 5 dollars to get 50 diamond that you can use to buy stuff in our automated market" and stuff. never tried buying myself.

Seems like a waste of time and money bringing in charges in a case like this, better to let his family deal with the punishment rather than wasting public money and leaving a black mark on the poor kid's record. Hopefully someone in authority will see sense.

the way the article wrote is they had to press charges for bank to do a drawback.

The original article gives very little detail. Basically that he spent $800 and he was playing Minecraft. It could even be because his gramma is on an ancient dial-up line (seeing as it the backend of nowhere). Those things could get very expensive very quickly.

But that would mean dialup still exists in a first world country. Oh wait, its american, your right.

The details were on the xbox from when my mum put them on and didn't realise that it was saving them and my brother doesn't have any concept of money. Especially as he plays games where he spends "money" all the time.

How old is your brother? It feels quite unrealistic unelss you allow a very young person to game there. My sister has understood the concept of money since she was 3. How? because we bothered to sit down and explain it to her. SHe may not understand how everything works, but she knows that you have to go, work, get money for it, which is limited, and you have to decide wheter you want to buy food or candy or clothes for it, the basics. It is beyond me how a 10 year old could not udnerstand it, especially since at 10 years i was already organizing my own (very little) bucget saving for my very own radio. (which still works btw).

 

[Kahani]

Kids unintentionally plowing huge charges onto their parents' credit cards is nothing new - I did it back in the early 80s - but it's unusual, and very unfortunate, that the system has this kid facing such serious trouble. Surely there must have been a way to resolve the matter without filing charges, and if not, surely any rational parent or grandparent would opt to eat the bill rather than throw their pre-teen child to the wolves of law enforcement. And yet, apparently not.

You seem to be assuming it was unintentional, but there's nothing in the linked article to suggest that is the case. While there aren't many details at all, I see no reason it couldn't have been a simple case of theft - kid takes card while granny isn't looking, granny doesn't appreciate having hundreds of dollars stolen.

How does a ten year old get hold of an adult's credit card/details and then use it without notice.

Very easily. How many women do you know who keep a careful watch on their handbag 24/7? It wouldn't be at all difficult to swipe a card while granny is in the toilet or something.

How does a ten year old rack up a $800 bill over a month without anyone noticing?

Again, very easily. How often do you check your credit card statement. Most people just get a statement once a month, and won't have a clue anything untoward might be happening until it arrives or, as in this case, if the bank contacts them to say something looks suspicious.

Wouldn't you be concerned if your ten year old was so obsessed with a game to the level that they would spend so much?

I'm sure I would. But in this case you have no evidence the kid was obsessed to any level, and it wasn't her kid in the first place.

And lastly why the fuck would you file a police report against one of your own relatives, and a ten year old one at that?

Because the kid is a thief and that was the only way to get the money he stole back. As others have noted, just because someone faces possible felony charges and a possible maximum fine does not in any way suggest that the worst case scenario will actually happen. At most, the kid is likely to be tried as a juvenile and get a minor slap on the wrist. In all likelihood it won't even go that far, although a lot will depend on the details and background that we don't know here.

In fact I remember my brother racking up a £70 phone bill for Phantasy Star Online back when we were using dial up, and that's as far as it got because my parents were on the ball, and no they didn't notify the police; they did what any sane parent would do which was punish him and then dock his pocket money for a few months until he paid it off.

Good for them. Not everyone can afford to lose $800. A good scare by the police could be exactly what this kid needs to learn his lesson.

 

[JarinArenos]

How old is your brother? It feels quite unrealistic unelss you allow a very young person to game there. My sister has understood the concept of money since she was 3. How? because we bothered to sit down and explain it to her. SHe may not understand how everything works, but she knows that you have to go, work, get money for it, which is limited, and you have to decide wheter you want to buy food or candy or clothes for it, the basics. It is beyond me how a 10 year old could not udnerstand it, especially since at 10 years i was already organizing my own (very little) bucget saving for my very own radio. (which still works btw).

I think you missed the implication. How many games have a fantasy in-game currency? You don't scold a kid for buying that 8000g sword in an RPG. It's not real money, it's game money. You don't need to lack a concept of money to miss where a deceptive game switches between the two.

... still doesn't explain Minecraft, though. Really looking forward to clarifications on this story.