Man Claims Son, 9, Spent Rs 1.1 Crore On YouTube Ads To Boost Views For Gaming Videos

A man has claimed that his nine-year-old son spent Rs 1.13 crore ($118,000) on YouTube advertising campaigns in an attempt to boost viewing numbers for his Minecraft and Roblox videos. In a YouTube video titled, 'Message from Dad...Might Mike Plays is Over,' published on Tuesday (Sep 15), Dave said his son, Mike, used the company credit card for the ad campaigns before his employer discovered the charges.

"If you don't know me, I'm Dave. I'm Mike's dad. So apparently my son has been running some high-budget campaigns on YouTube that I was pretty much unaware of," said Dave.

Dave explained that he learned about the exorbitant bill after being called into a room where his manager, corporate staff, and the finance team were waiting for him. He was provided with a three-week breakdown of the ad spending and told to explain where the money was used.

"They pull up a laptop, show me some tables on the screen, and basically asking me to explain why there's $118,000 missing from the company card that was assigned to me," said Dave.

"I didn't really have an answer at first, but once we saw where all of the actual transactions were going, I kind of connected the dots."

Dave stated that his son started uploading the gameplay videos when he was eight by streaming straight from PS5 without any fancy editing software. Dave added that he entered the company card himself to buy Robux for his son, and it then sat saved on the Google account that also carries his work email, calendar, and files.

"That's kind of where all of this went south. You know, looking back at everything now, that was kind of my mistake. That was the biggest mistake I made is having all of that sitting under one login," said Dave.

"He's only nine. He didn't fully understand what a company card meant or that a large number on the screen represented real money. I'm the adult in the situation. I'm the one who should have set up the limits or used a separate card entirely."

When Dave finished lamenting what his son had done and asked Mike for a reply, he said, “I'm definitely cooked.”

Check The Clip Here:

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Social Media Reactions

As of the last update, Dave's breakdown of the situation had garnered more than 1.1 million views and hundreds of comments as social media users highlighted that Mike must have known what he was doing.

"I had a coworker whose son spent several thousand dollars of his grandparents' money on Fortnite skins. Children can have weird obsessions," said one user, while another added: "I would never have a child, but even if I somehow did, they would never have access to a card of any kind."

A third commented: "Damn, if I did anything like that at his age my parents would've locked (if it's possible) or delete my YouTube channel and ground me for life."

A fourth said: "That child absolutely knew what he was doing. If you're able to say "I'm definitely cooked", it's because you know you got caught red-handed."