10 year old faces felony after spending $800 from his grandmother's credit card on MineCraft

[Agons]

I had no idea there was a way for a kid to spend 800 bucks on minecraft.

[Guest]

It's the principle. It's called teaching them a lesson that stealing is not okay. I think she's doing the right thing. 

[DarrenP]

I'm missing your joke...

[tobben]

Let me tell you the story of my childhood. 

 

As a kid i collected these things called Star Wars Miniatures. They were made by Wizards of The Coast. Every once and a while the Rare/Very Rare ones would go missing, or get stolen. We later found the culprit. My younger brother. Now we all know this just sounds harmless. However it's the principle. Stealing is stealing. No matter the age. If you want to blame anyone it's him. At 10 i knew better then to steal. So should he. Should also add i have some issues that would put me in a more than likely position to do stupid shit. Even at 10 you have enough knowledge to know that stealing is wrong.

 

Principle. I may sound cold but trust me it's better for the kid to learn the difference from right and wrong rather then go through life thinking he can do whatever he wants without consequence. If they don't end up charging him i guarantee he ends up in jail. 

that is absolutely retarded, that's not how you settle family matters, that's not how you teach a 10 year old child a lesson, these things are settled internally.

[Guest]

I'm missing your joke...

Charging him with felony is way too much for a 10 year old kid who doesn't know what's going/what is happening.

 

Tell him what he did wrong, that he caused a lot of problems and that it's very bad. 

 

Not possibly ruin his future.

[XTankSlayerX]

I think the 800$ might be 800 Microsoft Points... Which is 10 bucks.

[alicskysareblue]

Stealing is one thing and giving money away to somebody from a plastic card is another thing. You can't compare these to things. Obliviously the outcome is the same (800$ are gone) but i'm pretty sure that most 10 year olds won't get that.

you under estimate the intelligence of kids, I am pretty sure he had some understanding as to what he was doing

[Yoinkerman]

This kind of reasoning is why kids have no sense of responsibility.

 

In my day I'd get my ass whooped.  I'm only 26.

 

Charging him with felony is way too much for a 10 year old kid who doesn't know what's going/what is happening.

 

Tell him what he did wrong, that he caused a lot of problems and that it's very bad. 

 

Not possibly ruin his future.

[The Last MeMe]

It's the principle. It's called teaching them a lesson that stealing is not okay. I think she's doing the right thing.

He pr

[OneGun]

His Grandma is a Snitch ass Ho!!!Leave Snitches in Ditches..

[zerouplol12]

what happens to you if you are charged at 10 years old?

[ReillyP]

The thing is some people dont see credit cards as steal-able. Many people allow their kids to go into their wallets and purchase online things (30 dollar game here and 5 dollars of keys there) he could have been allowed to do it once and seen it as allowance when needed.

[coder-guy22296]

i feel like he did not realize he was spending real money, i imagine the credit card was allready linked to the account and he was never told to be carefull

[minimoose]

They're gonna put all the blame on the kid, who at 10 years old is about as smart as the average dog, and none of the blame will be placed on his grandmother for leaving her purse/wallet somewhere where the kid can get his hands on it. When shit like this happens it's more the fault of the guardians than the kid because if they raised the kid properly he would have known not to touch the card in the first place.

I would very much disagree that a 10 year old is as smart as a dog.  That is very offensive.  Would you say that I am as smart as a dog?  No, because I am human.  10 years are not as developed in their brain, but they are not a dog...  

 

Edit:

 

BTW I am not 10 just to clarify.

[Guest]

This kind of reasoning is why kids have no sense of responsibility.

 

In my day I'd get my ass whooped.  I'm only 26.

 If you meant my comment:

 

Charging him with a felony is not the way to punish him.

 

Do you even realize what raising a child means? Yes, here comes a lecture from a 20 year old, please listen despite being older.

 

 

You have to teach him morals and values not because they fear the parents. (dad is going to beat my ass when I do this) and then not have guilt about it.

 

 

They have to genuinely feel bad about it.

 

If that child has had a decent emotional development with the family I can gaurantee he is feeling bad right now.

 

Studying for teacher so behavioural patterns and thought processes are explained to me 100 times over.

[Imabigmac]

Well he should have kept racking up the charges on the card, then he would have had one heck of a minecraft account and a criminal record that will go away in just under a decade. 

[gibbsy81]

Really $800, I can build 2 pcs with that money

Or 8 depending on parts.

[Giggitygoebbels]

So i am assuming you have never pirated something in your life then?

Or jaywalked before lol

  

I can very easily tell everyone in the thread obviously doesn't know much about the legal system.

He's ten he'll be tried as a minor, aka no jail time, 10 year olds have committed murder and not experienced jail time before.

Having a criminal conviction as a minor will not impact your future, once your 18 the slate is clean, you think I'd be working in a school if the 9 assault charges that were against me at 15-17 we on record?

Court cases towards minors are designed purely to put fear in the child to make them realise their actions are wrong. Or to prove that the child understood they were in the wrong and are punished to community service and that stuff.

  

Wait 18 and the slate is clean?That is not the case in my country afaik.

I don't think most kids understand how credit cards work at the age of 10.

 

Come on it is just some numbers,even trial and error can cause it to work.

 

I think the 800$ might be 800 Microsoft Points... Which is 10 bucks.

Or even the cheapest currency on earth...

[T.Vengeance]

you under estimate the intelligence of kids, I am pretty sure he had some understanding as to what he was doing

You don't seem to understand how extreme this punishment is. It goes beyond the understanding of the kid. The kid doesn't know what arrested means. He doesn't know what jail time is other than "I got sent to the corner of the class". If a kid grew up with parents providing everything including toys, he'll think everything is free; free as in adults supply the money for the time being. This situation seems to be no different.

[gibbsy81]

On like server donations?

Xbox360 skin pack.

[Ookami]

Dont get him to jail. Leave him with 2 pedophiles in a dark room for 2 days and also delete his gaming account.

[jukki]

First of all totaly understand the charges. 800 e is a lot of Money. Yes it is a bit too extreme for sure. As said. Since he is under 18 records wil be sealed. He is minor so he cant face jail time.

Also. It is extremely easy to spend 800 on minecraft. Many servers have donations which give you perks in the server. I had once a kid to donate 100 e to my server. Few months later it got chargebacked. Since then my paypal has been on -100 e. I had to stop my server since i could not pay it anymore. To this day i am not able to do purchaces throught paypal because my debit card and email are linked to it.

The kid clearly knew how to use the credit card. There is no single account you can link to pay for the servers. Unless he had his grandmothers paypal account. Or made a account with her grandmas card.

[Nicktrance]

How the hell is that even possible?

[maximilian4o]

[heineygoat]

It's the principle. It's called teaching them a lesson that stealing is not okay. I think she's doing the right thing. 

No way that is too harsh, a felony? That stays with you for years man. IDK about what every country this is from but in Aus its a legal requirement to tell employers if you're a criminal.