12 year old Farmville addict racks up almost $1300 of debt

AATG: "An embarrased mother featured in the national UK press after unwittingly letting her 12 year old son rack up $1300 (around £900) of debts in the popular social game Farmville, currently running on Facebook."

[john master lee]

Somehow this story will get twisted so that it makes gaming look bad, instead of this rather negligent mother...

[d10sfan]

Yea, thats the problem with the media. There is nothing wrong with gaming itself. It is usually stupid parents that cause problems.

[mrv321]

Probably along the lines of....

'Orphaned child sold himself on the street to fund his gaming addiction after spending what his grandmother left for him in her will, we got in touch with evilville and asked how they felt to which they replied 'We'd have killed him and sold his organs to fund our slavery, prostitution and Nazi invasion of your house.' EVERYONE except crackpot video game junkies who ARE ALL OBESE and STUPID agree games should be banned.'

That's probably what the dailymail will read... with some inclusion of how Video games killed Diana or something.

[Panthers]

Yup, because I bet that the news' best viewers are parents. And parents always think they are doing a good job and dont want the finger pointed at them. They like to think its everything elses fault that their kids are screwed up. So the media will blame games and parents can feel it was out of their control.

[xXRight3yeXx]

I think it's the crazy mom who's trying to cover herself up. Only low-lives pay to play on a social network like FB.

[FragGen]

It must actually be a pretty decent farm simulation if all you get for all your hard work is a pile of debt at the end!

[Anorexorcist]

There is just no personal accountability anymore. It is gone with the Dodo bird.

It is just as ridiculous as Americans claiming that McDonalds makes them and their children fat or right-wing idiot celebrities like Rosie O' Donnell who say guns kill people.

In the words of Larry The Cable Guy: "if guns kill people, then I can blame misspelled words on my pencil"

[Danteh]

lol a 12 year old with 300 dollars of savings??? I'm 21 and I'm gonna sell my right eyeball to buy an iPad xD

[AEtherbane]

Why did the parent allow this? And more importantly... why is a 12 year old kid on facebook? there's a 14 yr age minimum for a reason

[Corepred4]

Sorry, kid. Off to the fields with the Mexicans to pick fruit and vegetables to pay for your debt. What was that? Oh, don't worry about school. It seems to be that your passion for farming and your new job are a match made in Heaven. Now get your ass out there and work to pay your bill!

[sikbeta]

@mrv321

lol that was Awesome, So Fox News Style, Bubbles...

[chaostheory]

You've got your terminology mixed-up. Right-wing means conservatives, who are generally pro-guns, left-wing means liberals, who are generally against firearms.

[zagibu]

@FragGen: I lold. Speaking of experience, maybe?

[bjornbear]

a$$

[ReBurn]

No kidding.

[Fishy Fingers]

You can get into real debt on Farmville? I thought it was just some stupid mini-game or something.

My Facebook usage is rather limited, use it to talk to a few people, not much else.

[Miraak82]

dude thats what I'm saying , I've been refusing to accept any of this crap since the days of myspace and those stupid mafia wars but damn I didn't know that there is real money involved money better spent on titties, weed and beer!!!!

[bjornbear]

but either way

FTW

[Solidus187-SCMilk]

I had no Idea you could spend money in farmville.

People try to get me to join farm ville and mafia wars but I only play real videogames.

The last southpark episode about facebook was funny.

[DirtyLary]

Gotta love addiction.

She should give him something else to play, like Warcraft.

[BlindspliT]

this is not gaming ... this is madness!

madness...?

[zagibu]

This is ancient south-eastern Greece, also called Lacedaemon!

[Xlll]

Ha so this is what casual games lead too.

[XxCYONIDExX]

And some people call xbox live a waste.

[RankFTW]

I spent like £15k on WoW in my hayday, not something I'm proud of heh and have been WoW free for 7 months now.

[DirtyLary]

You have no idea. We sell loot in Mafia Wars. The same people buy $200-400 a month in weapons, and always come back. We have near 10k customers.

These Zynga games are huge addictions, they rival the WOW junkies.

[BYAAHHH]

I'm totally shocked and disgusted by this. I mean, what kind of mother let's her son play Farmville? FARMVILLE!?

[corneliuscrust]

is the real problem.

[rezzah]

lmao sucks to be her

[AliTheBrit19]

I use facebook to keep in contact with old friends from school and stuff, I use it on a daily basis infact

But I have never gone near farmville, and you know what the more I hear about it the more I'm happy that I have no intention of ever doing so.

[NotSoSilentBob]

Never in a million years would a mother be negligent and have her child occupied with a computer game? This poor mother must get her money back cause she is the victim here.

/Sarcasm

That's what you get for not paying attention to your child and spending time with them instead of getting a game to take care of them.

[anonymouse111335]

What kind of a mother lets her 12 year old son go on facebook anyways? And on the subject of all this crap what is with facebook? All the intellectuals steered away from myspace but they flocked to facebook, I for one, have never been active on these social media sites filled with teenage angst and YOU FUK WIT ME I MAEK UR LIFE HELL BETCH crap on them.

/rant

[SKUD]

Whats farmville?.

[Raptura]

Ahaha, reminds me of the new South Park episode which was pretty epic.

[kesvalk]

i have nothing to say... i mean... farmville? man...