FEATURE - Xbox Horror Story is a Warning to Both Parents and Gamers.

The UK's Daily Mail is running the story of an eleven year old boy who has managed to purchase over $1,700 of online Xbox products through Xbox Live on his mother's credit card without her realizing it.  Ouch!

Apparently, his mother placed her credit card details on the boy's Xbox account in order to pay for his Xbox Live subscription, unaware that the credit card can be used to purchase games, add-ons, videos and the like.  The boy then proceeded over the next six months to click his way through nearly $2,000 worth of products for his Xbox, until his mother received the bill and presumably had a coronary!

The story is a little difficult to believe in parts, and it can be even harder to feel sympathy for the mother in question when she acts so self-righteous and indignant towards Microsoft, saying things like,

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.

The victim mentality becomes tougher to swallow when one realizes the costs were accumulated over six months, which raises the question of why such charges were not spotted earlier on the mother's credit card bill.  Also, although the boy may be eleven, I think most gamers who own an Xbox will find it a stretch to believe that an eleven year old in a digital age was entirely unaware that he was spending some serious money, even if he was unaware that it would be as high as $1,700.  However, the story does raise some interesting questions for gamers and parents of young gamers.

First, it needs stating that there are a number of parental safeguards on all the major consoles such as allowing parents to set up passwords and place spending restrictions on an account.  Also, any Xbox owner knows that when buying Microsoft Points, it is made clear just how many dollars one is spending on those points, so while it is easy to spend money, it is made crystal clear that one is indeed spending money.

That being said, the Xbox and other consoles do suffer from a classic case of what I have dubbed "Amazon Syndrome" - by which I mean the ability to go onto such as Amazon, spend a few minutes simply clicking a mouse, and find oneself having spent a heck of a lot of money that one probably would not have spent if it required the physical act of picking the product up from a shop and paying for it with cold, hard cash.

The Xbox is an easy system to do this on, as is the iPhone - I have frequently clicked purchases of cheap $1 games on iTunes, only to then buy a number of them, and find myself having spent a substantial amount of money on Angry Birds and remakes of old console games!  Such ease with which we can whittle away our hard earned cash, or (in the case of children) the cash of others, raises issues when it comes to the responsibility of corporations, and the responsibility of gamers themselves.

As far as corporations go, Nintendo, Sony, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft are naturally motivated to sell their products, and therefore want to make purchase of their products as easy as possible.  Yet they do have a legal responsibility to make the consumer aware of what they are doing when they press a button on the controller, or click a mouse.  This requires clear labelling of how much a product costs, whether it be in terms of "credits" or in actual price terms.  Basic contract law dictates that for a valid purchase to take place, that the consumer must be aware of the fact that they are making a purchase.

Corporations also have a responsibility to make sure that a consumer cannot "accidentally" purchase a product without knowing it.  Most companies do this in one form or another, by asking one to "confirm purchase" while reaffirming the details of the purchase.  As far as my game experiences have gone, I have found this set up to be quite adequate and have never accidentally clicked myself into spending money, but others may disagree.

What corporations do not have a responsibility to do is to be responsible on the consumer's behalf, and put up endless barriers just for the sake of irresponsible consumers.  Just as one would not expect McDonalds to refuse an obese person the right to purchase a cheeseburger, or expect Macy's to prevent someone from purchasing an "excessive" amount of clothes, one should not expect companies like Microsoft to step in to stop someone spending a lot money on their Xbox.

Responsible purchasing comes down to the gamer.  As long as one is aware of what the price of a product is, and is aware of what one is doing, controlling one's spending is the gamer's responsibility.  This is not a controversial statement - if this story was not about an 11 year old boy, but was about a 26 year old man who had spent himself into trouble, we would have little sympathy.

It is in the case of children, who cannot be expected to act as responsible adults, where this issue becomes problematic and where the role of the parent becomes more prominent.  Microsoft is correct to state that they have significant parental controls in place for parents to use, which if used correctly will stop children from doing what children do best - spend money!  However, this requires that parents know about those controls in the first place.  Unfortunately a great many parents are unaware of the fact that there is even a risk for which parental controls would be needed.  The mother in the article was unaware that her credit card could be used for anything other than Xbox Live subscriptions, and therefore saw no risk that needed her supervision.

I believe that this is a situation that many parents find themselves in, mainly because the risks that come with the new online communities that have arisen in recent years are so new and relatively unpublicized.  In the days of the SNES and the PlayStation, the most damage a child could do was by throwing their pad at the TV screen in frustration.  Now, in the right (or wrong) situation, a child can plunge an unsuspecting parent into thousands of dollars of debt without them even leaving the living room.

This is why it is so important for parents to be aware of the risks that come with the harmless looking box that they have bought Junior for Christmas.  Just like it took years for parents to become aware of the risks of the internet, it may be years before parents become fully aware of the risks of the new generation of online gaming consoles.  It is certainly up to parents to inform themselves of what they are bringing into the family household, and perhaps it is here where companies such as Microsoft may be able to help more than they are already.

While Microsoft may not have a legal responsibility to publicize the financial risks that come with their consoles, and while it may be easy for them to dismiss the mother of this story as trying to pass the blame of her irresponsible parenting onto them (and perhaps they are correct), it would still be nice if Microsoft saw that many parents who are not tech savvy are genuinely unaware of the risks that come with placing one's credit card details onto a child's Xbox account.  It would be a signficant gesture if from that, Microsoft and other gaming companies started working more closely with parents to make them aware of the dangers that accompany the advancements of online console technology.