Nine-year-old racks up $118k in YouTube ad charges on father's company card
A father says his 9-year-old son spent $118,000 on YouTube ad campaigns for his Minecraft and Roblox channel over three weeks using a company credit card. The father, who had saved the card to his Google account, set up a $20 promotion but the child created his own campaigns without understanding the budget limit. The charges were discovered when the father was called into a meeting with his employer's finance team.
The channel began when the boy was eight, streaming from a PlayStation 5 with a basic headset and no editing, with early uploads drawing only a handful of views. The father had previously used the company card to buy Robux, and that card remained saved on the shared Google account, which also carried his work email and files.
After the father demonstrated a $20 promotion, the son created his own campaigns, misreading the budget as a one-time charge rather than a limit. The $118,000 bill over three weeks surfaced when finance called the father in. The promoted videos gained traction, with some reaching around 200,000 views, and the channel's top uploads now exceed 250,000 views.
This incident could highlight the ease with which children can inadvertently spend large sums on automated platforms when payment details are saved to shared accounts. It may prompt families to reconsider how they manage digital payment methods and could lead to calls for more robust spending limits or parental controls on advertising tools. Employers may also become more cautious about issuing corporate cards linked to personal Google accounts, potentially affecting workplace policies.