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.

Parents don’t parent anymore.

It's kind of the lemonade stand of our time. Get some feel for how markets work, and exercise some generally applicable skills (video editing).

I assumed it was his own company

If they have a Workspace account for the entire business, they could be big enough to be in the "Google actually cares because they bring in $$$" category and will drop the charge.

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.

Hard agree 🤑🫰😈

• Google

It really depends how smart the kid is. I don’t see the problem with a smart 9 year old uploading gameplay videos if it’s done right. As long as it’s supervised by the parent, the parent approves what the kid can upload and limit how many videos the kid can upload in a month. Comments can be turned off and they just use an internet nickname instead of their real name. Kid can even wear a mask to hide his face. Like it can be used as a learning tool to teach a kid how to use a pc and software, how to stay safe on the internet and what privacy means. Also how to plan and develop patience and discipline.

Of course I doubt these parents did any of that.

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

Sometimes the parent needs the teaching moment. This was one.

Well, you can't grow on YouTube without being a capitalist shill (except if you make content against that, since it isn't a popular capitalist shill activity).

I don't think the parent prioritizes time with son, rather, $20 could pacify them for a while

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.

You assume Google cares or held to account about your privacy and protection like any physical businesses have such as banks, shops or phone companies??

Have you seen how little regard they give to the meet app spam situation? It is telling how little they have gotten away with care about their consumers.

I think mine requires a biometric for payment.

You're in luck. It's linked in the article

Well hope it least help the campaign. Lol wow!

20 years ago I read an article that stuck with me ever since ... it detailed at the time that on average, whether you can afford it or not, it costs about $200,000 to raise a child to the age of 18.

So selling the kid would cut the parents losses over the 18 year period

It’s gettin’ boomer up in here.

very relevant username

I thought people learned the hard way with echo dots

Yeah the guy fucked up. Id also say the company fucked up if they didn't have the cards auto sending receipts from purchases somewhere as well. (Then again it could have been an option the father didn't have on once again). Anytime I've had a company card for something I would turn on all the notifications and input everything into the ADP app or whatever system they are using right away. I wouldn't even walk out of the store without taking a picture of the receipt to upload it to make sure if I lost thr receipt I wasnt going to be screwed. You're spending money that isn't yours, that shit will bite you.

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.

• 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".