How to prevent your children from using your credit card in video games?

Tresh Gilbert did not realize the amount of money her children spend on digital goods in the game "Fortnite" during the epidemic until she reviewed her credit card data from last year (2020) to prepare taxes, to be surprised by the total spending of $ 955 in 2020.

In a report published by the American newspaper "Wall Street Journal", the writer Jolly Gogan reported the story of Mrs. Gilbert, who said she and her husband no longer interested in monitoring their children's spending on games in the midst of the chaos caused by the spread of the epidemic, and did not activate the controls of control overTheir PlayStation 4, which would have prevented the non-approved fees, and their sons (10 and 12 years old) used their parents ’credit card to buy“ V-Bucks ”, which is the Fortnite currency used to buy elements inthe game.

In fact, the two children did not realize what they did and they believed that they spent between $ 200 and $ 300 on the games, and Ms. Gilbert said they had changed the account settings to "requesting the password when paying" to avoid this again.

The two children already spent a lot of money on digital commodities before the epidemic, but with all the extra time that children spend on the devices at home during the closure, these sums increased in dollars, and the total purchases inside the games on mobile devices, computers and gaming devices reached about $ 100 billion onThe world level during the past year (2020), an increase of about 18% compared to 2019, according to Michael Pacter, the administrative director of stock research in "Wedbush Securities" (Wedbush Securities "(Wedbush Securities)..

Many parents discovered that their children had incurred huge fees in exchange for "Robux", which is the official currency within the "Roblox" game, and for its part, Aya Sari said that she discovered that her 8 -year -old son had spent money in the gameMore than she believed when she asked her tax equipment about all "Rublix" fees, and Mrs. Sari said that her son is always asking her permission and that she agrees to the fees without realizing the amount of the amount due, which is approximately thousands of dollars..

What you can do

When she spoke to many parents, the writer said that most of them are struggling between their feeling of conscience and shame for relieving playing and controlling restrictions during the epidemic, and they wonder about how to reduce spending.

Some people will decrease naturally, and this may have confirmed what Ms. Gilbert confirmed, who said she had noticed a slowdown in spending last March after her son returned to school and resumed exercise..For his part, Patcheter said that he expects the growth growth within the game to slow down and return to the annual levels of the epidemic by about 7% to 10%..

Parents can take some measures to ensure that children are unable to perform unauthorized purchases through application stores, game player or video games.

Apple App Store

To prevent children from making unauthorized purchases in the games that take place through the Apple App Store, parents can create a traffic code by setting up "screen time" for the family on "iPhone" or "iPad") Or "iPod Touch", and if children have their own devices, you can activate the preparation of "family" and then activate the preparation "Ask before payment".

This way, you will receive a notification every time your child wants to buy a new game or make a process of purchase inside the game;You only need to click on "rejection" or "approval", and you can also choose not to allow purchases within the application at all, through settings for the duration of the device on your device or on your child's device.

Google applications

The applications and games in the family department on the Google Play applications are automatically approved before you can perform purchases, and in games and applications that are outside the family section, parents can activate the authentication mechanism, and if you use a Google account (Your Google is on more than one device or you are using multiple accounts on one device, you need to activate the authentication mechanism for each device or account.

You can also use the Google Family Link to manage children's purchases within applications on "Chromebook" and some Android devices, and the application also works on the iOS (iOS "operating system (iOS))).

Microsoft Store

If your child is playing on the "Windows 10" or Xbox, you can create a family account and ask children to obtain your approval for anything they want to buy from the "Microsoft" store, and you can alsoSetting a dedicated setting to reduce purchases.

X-Box

Parents can manage inside the game through family settings on Xbox units, and Xbox also contains the family settings application that allows parents to control all activities of their children's games from their phones, and if you activate the preparation “Ask before payment” you will receive a notificationIn the application when children try to make a purchase within the application and there is not enough money in their accounts.After that, parents can decide whether they want to add more money.

Nintendo

Nintendo does not allow video games to store payment information on the accounts of anyone under the age of 18, and the Nintendo Switch system contains a parental control application that allows families to control spending, and parents can also restrict purchasesBy creating a family group for "Nintendo" account.

Play Station

To prepare parental control tools on "PlayStation 4" or "PlayStation 5", you will need to account for your "PlayStation Network", in addition to the account of each child, and once you create these accounts, you can set limits for the monthly spending for each child, and for familiesThat has the old PlayStation 3 version, the same settings can restrict spend.

Roblix

If your child is logged into "Rublix" games via the web browser instead of applications, then spending varies, the site does not store your credit card information, so you must enter it every time you buy a "Robx" currency, and the company uses the credit card verification system,So you may pay a small amount (you can recover later) to confirm that you are the user authorized using the card.

Fortnite

Parents can create a 6 -digit personal identification number on "EPIC Games" on the web, and it must be inserted before the purchases in the "IPIC Games" store, and the personal identification number can be created through parental control settings, and if children areThey play "Roblex" or "Fortnite" anywhere except the website.