Dumbass of the Day - Mom Blames Microsoft for Son Spending Money on XBL

[Siren]

Hailing from the UK, we have Dawn Matthews and her 11 year old son Brendan Jordan.  Brendan Jordan recently went on a spending spree and spent a total of  $1,743.49 on XBL all while using his mother's credit card.  His mother, 37 year old Dawn Matthews is blaming Microsoft despite the little fact that she provided information to her son's account.

Matthews, who's son claimed he did not know that the charges were going to his mother's bank account had the following to say regarding her son's expenses.

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

I work two jobs just to look after my family and pay the bills so I cannot afford all these extortionate charges.

A thousand pounds isn't that much to people like Bill Gates, but for a single mum it is a lot of money that I don't have."

Microsoft has responded by saying, "With over 30M Xbox LIVE members across the world customer complaints of this nature are extremely rare.

Microsoft's goal is to provide parents and caregivers with tools and resources to manage their children's gaming and entertainment experiences so that they can play in ways that are safer, healthy and more balanced.

To accomplish this, we've built-in parental controls in every Xbox 360, work closely with retailers and recently launched the Play Smart, Play Safe website as an online resource for families.

It should also be noted that LIVE accounts registered for children's use have online activity automatically defaulted to off, these can be enabled by the parent should they wish in the Family Settings section."

Acording to the mother, Jordan, the 11 year old big spender told his mother that when he found out about the charges that occurred over a time period of six months, he did not want his Xbox anymore.

"Brendan is 11 and knows his times tables but it was only when I explained to him that he realised how much money he had spent.

When I showed him he burst into tears. He unplugged the Xbox and said he didn't want it anymore.

I haven't punished him because he feels bad enough and I know he won't do it again.

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."

Next time before you sign up your child for an Xbox Live account, fully read and understand the parental controls before placing blame on the easiest target.  This is not a case of "Microsoft you suck, you are to blame for everything going wrong in my life", this is a case of parent stupidity and dumbassery.  For that very reason, you Dawn Matthews are receiving the Dumbass of the Day.

via Daily Mail

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