Single mom wants Microsoft to parent her child

It's an old story, but it fits right into the narrative of irresponsibility.  Single mother buys her 11 year old son an Xbox membership through the console, but doesn't notice when he starts buying things for his games.  The boy racks up over £1,000 in charges, and of course, she blames Microsoft.

A desperate mother has condemned Microsoft after her 11-year-old son racked up a £1,000 debt on her debit card - through his Xbox. 

Brendan Jordan racked up a bill of £1,082.52 on his Xbox without realising all the purchases were being charged to his mum Dawn Matthews' card. 

The schoolboy made the payments to buy accessories and new games on his console after it saved the details of a previously registered card.

 

Single mum-of-two Dawn, 37, from Strood, Kent, has now complained to Microsoft but claims the computer giant is ignoring her. 

She said: 'When I put my card details in 18 months ago I thought it was just for his membership to play online with his friends.

... 

'It is ridiculous to allow someone of his age to make payments without any checks being done.

'When he is in gaming mode he can't be thinking about the money. You can't put all that responsibility on a young boy.

'It is impossible to monitor everything your children do. These companies should take some responsibility. They take advantage of vulnerable people.'  

A spokesman for Microsoft claimed that a parental control setting would have prevented Brendan from spending Dawn's money. 

No checks being done? Do you hand your child a remote control and not care what television show he watches? Not if you are serious about being a parent. I think it is fair to say that most children lack judgment, which is why you have to exercise that judgment ahead of time. You're not being distracted by "gaming mode," right? You already knew ahead of time that you would be leaving your child alone while you are working, etc.. When you bought the game system, did you not ask any questions? Did you not pause and think, hey, this thing is going to connect to the internet, what risks does that pose for my children? Guess what?  Microsoft did think of those questions, which is exactly why they have created tools for you to make it easier. The tools are called Parental Settings.

Let me give you a bit of advice now. Your son is 14 at the time of my blog entry, and he'll be getting online every day. You have those same parent tools on the computer he will use, and probably on your network router. Go down to your electronics store and ask some questions about these settings, and stop pushing responsibility for your lack of parenting onto others.