ITT: person deserves life changing debt and losing his job because he made a mistake
Cmon yall, you can be critical of someone’s actions while also recognizing 6 figures of debt is absurd and not a reasonable outcome of this.
What really should be the case is that the dad learns his lesson, loses company card access, kid learns his lesson, google writes it off, and the kid’s account is permanently banned.
We don’t need to ruin someone’s life for this
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.
Losing his job is a 50/50 IMO. We don’t know how his dad performed at work, if this is his first offense, etc. If all goes well, the dad gets google to write off the cost. Then the company sees that as a learning lesson and just revokes his card access. On the other hand, it could mean he is fired if he has already racked up other violations.
They’re probably running unlimited Amex. Google should legally have to write off the ad spend and cease the account.
100k offense from negligence. I’ve not worked anywhere that would shrug that off. Of course, he could be family or otherwise protected.
100k offense from negligence. I’ve not worked anywhere that would shrug that off. Of course, he could be family or otherwise protected.
I’ve seen negligence cause costs approaching 100k at my current job (and thankfully leadership has changed so that isn’t happening anywhere near as much) but the way I see it, if he’s a really good employee and Google writes off the charges he could possibly narrowly keep his job. But I don’t see him keeping his job if Google doesn’t write off the ad fees. (Barring of course being owner/family to owners)
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.
This is probably the backstory. Rhonda Ryan’s world…poor guy will be held at gunpoint streaming until he dies or kills his parents
Why is a nine year old on you tube, worse with their own channel?
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).
Hell no it isn’t. I would never let my nine year old have a youtube channel.
I kind of get what you are driving at, but the huge difference is the kid actually runs the stand, and the customers are (likely) friends and neighbors.
Not some major profit corporation trying to use you as a product to sell ads.
So the goal was $20 on an ad campaign? Might as well light a $20 bill on fire. That won’t move the needle at all. Also why does a Minecraft channel of a nine year old need a advertising campaign. A nine year old has all the time in the world to learn how to make compelling content and grow organically. The goal for a nine year old shouldn’t be high subscriber/viewer count. The dad could have turned it into a teaching moment when the kid complained about low viewership instead of throwing money at it no matter how small it was supposed to be
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’m glad you added that caveat. I realized recently that my favorite content creators are people who will never do ad reads and take no corporate money. And yes, they also make content critiquing capitalism.
I don’t think the parent prioritizes time with son, rather, $20 could pacify them for a while
The perils of shitty parenting.
Edit: Goes way beyond shitty parenting. How did someone this stupid get a company card let alone one with a limit that high? It’s disturbing.
I remember my father complaining about his company card. Apparently the bank backing the card had some restriction that the maximum amount for an individual transaction could only be some percentage of the cards limit. For example purposes let’s say that’s 20%. He had to purchase stuff for $30-40K on occasion. Which means the cards limit had to be $150-200K.
Dave said he entered the company card himself to buy Robux for his son, and it then sat saved on the Google account that also carries his work email, calendar, and files. Dave did not say why he used the company card for that purchase.
Well I don’t have much sympathy here. He used the company card to buy his son Robux. There was no reason to do this, he should have used his personal card. So maybe he thought he could skim a little money off the top for personal use and it ended up biting him in the ass.
Roblox keeps the kid occupied and thus makes dad more efficient at his job. It’s a legit expense.
Rofl
I was thinking the same thing… At my job if you have a company card, you have to explain ever cent spent on it every month at a minimum. How did he not have a difficult conversation with someone when he bought fucking Robux on the company card??
At my company the direct manager approves the detail - although if the total looks reasonable for the assignment they don’t scrutinize individual expenses - then above that there are automated flagging checks only. If mixed in with legit expenses, and the description or vendor type or whatever didn’t trigger the automated flagging, $20 for something inappropriate would never be caught.
don’t you typically have to confirm if you want to save a card to your account as well? like I get pop-ups every time I manually type in my card cause I don’t trust websites saving that info for more than I need it to. My parents specifically never saved their cards onto my sibs and my accounts to avoid frivolous spending. it’s an awful situation to be in, but the dad kinda reaped what he sowed here
Oh well, looks like it’s the company’s problem now since it’s their card. They should be more careful. Hope they have fun dealing with YT.
Anyway everyone needs to go to that kids minecraft YT channel, subscribe and hit the bell icon. Also sign up for his highest Patreon tier. Don’t forget to donate to dad’s legal fund.
And use your company card if you got one.
now i kinda want to see his channel
You’re in luck. It’s linked in the article
i would not be that patient. props to that father.
Well hope it least help the campaign. Lol wow!
Dad wants to punish the son and to show him that actions have consequences…
Dad also records a viral video for that chanel and mentions that the chanel is probably not gone for long…
Shit dad overall
Why
Because he couldn’t educate his child enough
- to know he couldn’t spend that much on a whim
- to know minecraft videos aren’t gonna be profitable starting solo in 2026
- to even feel bad at all for what he did
- to even realize how massive of a fuckup he just made after his dad found out
That child is done for.
The child is 9 be realistic
then I must have been a genius at 9 because I got an overcharge of like $10 on my phone subscription at about that age and when my dad told me I was mortified at what I had just done
This post is making me realize the position I’m in and how I got here.
My seven year old has my old switch, and uses that account. He always asks before buying anything and has never bought anything without permission. But he uses my Nintendo account, which is linked to my PayPal, which is linked to my credit card.
This card used to have something like $7000 limit. Last I checked though it’s at 32k limit. I should probably set some kind of spending limit just in case on this setup.
yes…please. Before you get a legal battle or some stuff like that on your hands…
My parents would never tell us what the money situation is, which is both a curse and a blessing. They would just say there was no money for it so I didn’t understand the concept that well. Took high school to learn about balancing checkbooks and such to fully comprehend what they were saying.
I think parents should have a talk to their kids about finances in general though, not the nitty gritty, but understand how much goes into X to ensure Y. To find out the real value of a dollar in a more tangible way so they know, when mom and dad say they have $1K at the end of the month, that’s a hard cap, and they may soft cap it to keep savings for emergencies.
So what you’re telling me is that you should be lauded because you didn’t stumble on an financial edge case landmine as a kid but this child unfortunately did and that they deserved it? Got it.
to know minecraft videos aren’t gonna be profitable starting solo in 2026
How is this something you’d expect from a dad?
because it’s common sense that spending over 100k while earning 0 is not profitable
deleted by creator
Have you watched the video?
Title go
I know hindsight is 20/20 and all, but a vasectomy ten years ago would have been far cheaper.
I don’t know why you’re being down voted, the joke is funny. Sometimes the internet has no chill
In my instance I can’t see downvotes, so the joke’s on them.
But then how will you know your social standing amongst all of the internet strangers!!! Heresy
“I left my son unsupervised with no controls or access restrictions, This is clearly someone else’s fault!”
What? What led you to conclude this? I didn’t read this specific article, but I watched the video and as far as I can remember the father says that he didn’t mean to do that, it was an accident and he acknowledges it as his fault
I’m sorry, why is a 9 year old even allowed to post to YouTube? There’s a lot of mistakes the Dad made to lead up to this, hard life lesson for him mainly.
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.
I think it has to be the parents account and the parent shares videos themselves. Do we really want 9 year olds obsessed with metrics like views and stuff? This is how you get “brain rot” children, why arent they playing outside or with toys? They are 9, not 15. Kids are extremely impressionable at that age.
yeah the dad could have turned it into a teaching moment when the kid complained about views instead of throwing money at it. But making YouTube videos doesn’t automatically mean they will obsess about views it really depends on how the parents guides their kid, they can even hide the metrics from the kid. There are extensions that will hide the numbers from the page.
Also screen time should be limited anyway, if you limit how much time a kid can spend on the pc there is plenty of time left in a week to play outside and play with toys. It’s all about balance.
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.
The first failure was allowing his kid to have a YT channel at all, or at least not one that is heavily monitored and restricted by him or the other parent. The financial fuck up is the consequences of poor parenting.
Parents are going up against multi-billion dollar companies, no one has sufficent parenting skills for this except the Amish.
Well sure but I mean, just don’t set up the YouTube channel for your 9 year old? Seems pretty simple to me.
Everything about kids is simple when you take a magnifying glass to any parent’s mistake. Anyone who thinks it’s easy is probably fucking up their kid royally.
Most of this commentary comes from people that don’t have kids.
That would assume dad has the time and energy for that. In a world where both parents need to be working in order to survive. Most people have no clue how any of the digital world works, but we somehow expect everyone to master it all when they have children?
Wild take, tbh.
He knew enough to know that his 9 year old was posting videos on YouTube and gave him a credit card to buy ads. It’s poor parenting and ignorance is a bullshit argument. You don’t have to master the digital world to know that letting your prepubescent child post content online without strict oversight is bad. Again, he clearly knew this was happening because again, he funded it. Shit parenting.
I know single working parents with multiple kids that are surely worse off than this guy that aren’t this stupid and are better parents just by being attentive to their children’s actions and hobbies.
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/accountand 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.
Google make it obnoxiously hard to use a card just once. You have to explicitly delete it, and cancel or individually move every subscription an account may have to other payment methods before it can be deleted
It’s ultimately a parenting failure. But there should be way more education for young adults about online safety and parental controls.
If the parent is in full control, then they can upload their content, thats more responsible. I dont personally agree with it anyway, I think 9 is far too young to expose to the internet like that.
I think YouTube should require a password everytime you make a purchase, but still this wouldnt have happened if the parents were better educated. They learnt a hard lesson.
Yes, parents have to let kids do anything they want because kids will do it anyway. Parenting 101.
I read it more as, if your kid is intent on something, rather than slap them down, try and work with them to turn it into a positive experience.
Most kids adore doing stuff with their parents. It lets them practice adult skills, with the safety net of a trusted adult behind them.
With something like streaming, it would be down to the parent to keep them safe and let them explore their creativity. It sounds like this dad screwed that up, but is trying to at least own his part of that.
There are nuances between feral parenting and helicopter parenting.
And if kids want to do something stupid it’s ok to explain to them why it’s stupid and propose something else.
What if they want to film Jackass type content? Or “pranks”? Or play american football? Or read Harry Potter? Part of parenting is guiding your children to more fulfilling hobbies, not just letting them chase everything that’s trending at the moment.
Fully agreed on that. There is also a balance of allowing them to explore an idea space, while keeping them clear of risks and negative problems.
E.g. my minion is currently obsessed with Minecraft. They are actually getting quite good at the design part too. They want to play online though. I’m not happy with that, so I am setting up a private server. It will be whitelist access only. They will be able to play online and talk with their friends through Minecraft, but not random players online. When they are older, I’ll allow it, but only when I am in the (physical) room, keeping an eye on things.
If you try and shoehorn your kids into only what you think is acceptable, then you will have problems. If you have shown you will help them explore their own interests, they will come to you with them. If you regularly shut them down, they will go behind your back, where you have no control.
And this is a great way to do it. Kudos.
As you say, it’s all about balance. You don’t want to isolate your kid from all of their friends but you also don’t want them to do every stupid TikTok trend because all the other kids do it.
I’m not sure how you got that from that comment.
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.
Basically, teach your kid how things work rather than just telling them “no.”
Hard agree 🤑🫰😈
Google sitting over there just like “sux to be you, dude”.
