Mum horrified after 10-year-old daughter spent £2,500 online without her knowing
Emily Brown
Featured Image Credit: Image Source / Rocklights / Alamy Stock Photo
Kids can be costly enough at the best of times, so one thing parents certainly don't need is for children to start splashing their cash online.
Unfortunately, it was already too late for mum Georgina Munday by the time she realised her 10-year-old daughter Primrose had access to her bank account.
Speaking on the BBC Radio Four programme You and Yours, Georgina recalled spotting 'hundreds of transactions' and payment confirmations on her bank statement amounting to £2,500, with no idea how they'd happened.
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As she looked into the transactions, Georgina realised Primrose had managed to change the password on her iPad to allow payments to be made while she was playing the online game Roblox.
Users can purchase clothes and accessories in the app, as well as pay for some additional games.
After realising what had happened, Georgina contacted Tesco Bank to explain the situation but was told she couldn't be refunded.
"It was a really stressful time. I am not working at the minute, I am looking after my daughter," Georgina said.
"I just thought I would have to pay it off in installments over the next few years. I rang up Tesco Bank and they said, because it was my daughter, they couldn't do anything about it."
The mum turned to consumer radio show You and Yours to try and get advice about the situation, and after her appearance, Tesco responded to say they would refund her the full amount.
"We've carried out a further review of this case and have now agreed with Ms Munday that we'll refund her the full amount," Tesco told Tyla in a statement.
"We apologise to Ms Munday that this wasn't arranged for her when she first contacted us, and we've therefore also organised an additional payment to her as a gesture of goodwill."
Over the moon with the turn of events, Georgina is now trying to warn other parents about how easy it can be for kids to work out parental controls or passwords.
"Children are one step ahead of parents these days," she said. "We thought this Roblox game was quite innocent, it looks very basic. It's a whole world out there on this Roblox that we knew nothing about."
Roblox explains on its website that it does have a process in place for refunding requests on products bought without authorisation.
"Roblox has a robust policy for processing refund requests where there may have been unauthorised payments from a person's account.
"This process is detailed in our help centre. Parents also have access to a suite of Parental Controls that can be used to determine how much their children can spend and set spend notifications to increase visibility over their children's spending on Roblox."