China teen wipes off parents' life savings worth ₹52 lakh on online games

A 13-year-old Chinese school student from Henan Province reportedly spent almost 449,500 yuan or Rs 52 lakh on pay-to-play games using her mother’s debit card, media report of the South China Morning Post said.

From January to May, the teenager spent more than Rs 2 lakhs on buying game accounts, around Rs 24 lakh on game-related or in-game purchases and almost Rs 25 lakh to buy gaming goods for her classmates.

Questioned about the spending, the girl said she did not understand how much she was spending or where the money came from. She explained that she had just linked the debit card to her smartphone, using the password her mother had given her to withdraw money for other purposes.

Also Read | The costly gamble of gaming addictions

Elephant news, a Henan province TV news network, reported that the mother learnt about her daughter’s spending habits when she received a call from her teacher who was concerned about her mobile games' addiction. When she checked her bank account, she discovered that she only had only 0.5 yuan left.

The girl said that her classmates had bothered her to send them money for games they wanted to play after noticing her spending on games herself. She also didn't ask her teachers for help as she was afraid that her parents will be informed and so to hide the details of the purchases, she wiped the transaction data, reports said.

The girl's mother claimed that despite contacting numerous payment processors to request reimbursements, she had not yet been able to cover her losses on the entire amount.

The aforementioned incident is among the numerous cases of games and smartphone addicition arising out of China with multiple state officials and media labelling it as ‘spiritual opium’. The World Health Organisation now officially classifies video game addiction as a mental disorder.