PanamaTimes

Tuesday, Jul 01, 2025

Roblox: Ten-year-old spent £2,500 of mum's money without her knowing

Roblox: Ten-year-old spent £2,500 of mum's money without her knowing

A 10-year-old girl spent more than £2,500 on the gaming site Roblox after changing the password on her family's iPad tablet without her mum realising.

Georgina Munday, from Denbighshire is now warning parents to "be vigilant".

Tesco Bank initially refused a refund but reconsidered and apologised after BBC Radio Four consumer affairs show, You and Yours took up the case.

Roblox says it has "a robust policy" from unauthorised payments and Apple says pre-purchase alerts can be set up.

Roblox allows users to create their own games but also offers in app purchases to upgrade the user's avatar with things like clothes or accessories and offers some pay to play games.

Georgina Munday, 44, who lives in Dyserth, said her daughter, Primrose, who has autism, had been playing on her tablet for longer recently, because she is currently off school after struggling in mainstream education.

She initially thought someone had hacked Primrose's account but it soon became clear that the 10-year-old had managed to change the password to allow payments.

"We'd just seen hundreds of transactions, these payment confirmations, so then the panic set in - oh my gosh, whose card is this on?"

Primrose had managed to spend more than £2,500 on the site but most were small transactions of around £20.

For about a week, Georgina, who is a nurse, was in back and forth contact with Apple and her bank, Tesco Bank, trying to secure a refund but both refused - she said it was "a horrendous time".

"It was a really stressful time. I am not working at the minute, I am looking after my daughter. The last few months have been quite stressful, so maybe we have had our eye off the ball. I just thought I would have to pay it off in instalments over the next few years.

"I rang up Tesco Bank and they said, because it was my daughter, they couldn't do anything about it. So I tried Apple again - they just read me their terms and conditions. So that's when I contacted the BBC, You and Yours, consumer programme."

Within a day, Georgina said that Tesco Bank contacted her to say they would refund the full amount.

"I cried - it was just a relief, a weight off my shoulders."

Apple points out there are ways that accounts can be set up to alert a parent before a child wants to make a purchase.

It added that parents and guardians should not disclose passwords or enable FaceID and TouchID for their children and Ask to Buy should be set up so purchases need approval before going through.

Screen time being turned on will also enable parents to stop in-app purchases, it added.

Roblox players build the games, using the developer tools which the platform provides


Tesco Bank said: "We've carried out a further review of this case and have now agreed with Ms Munday that we'll refund her the full amount.

"We apologise to Ms Munday that this wasn't arranged for her when she first contacted us, and we've therefore also organised an additional payment to her as a gesture of goodwill."

Georgina said she does not feel happy to let her daughter play the game anymore.

"She knew what she was doing, she changed the password but I don't think she understood the enormity of it."

Georgina said parents need to "be vigilant" and know what their children are playing.

"Children are one step ahead of parents these days. We thought this Roblox game was quite innocent, it looks very basic. It's a whole world out there on this Roblox that we knew nothing about."

Roblox said: "Roblox has a robust policy for processing refund requests where there may have been unauthorised payments from a person's account.

"This process is detailed in our help centre here.

"Parents also have access to a suite of Parental Controls that can be used to determine how much their children can spend, and set spend notifications to increase visibility over their children's spending on Roblox."

Newsletter

Related Articles

PanamaTimes
0:00
0:00
Close
House Oversight Committee Subpoenas Former Jill Biden Aide Amid Investigation into Alleged Concealment of President Biden's Cognitive Health
OpenAI Secures Multimillion-Dollar AI Contracts with Pentagon, India, and Grab
Brazilian Congress Rejects Lula's Proposed Tax Increase on Financial Transactions
Landslide in Bello, Colombia, Results in Multiple Casualties
Papa Johns pizza surge near the Pentagon tipped off social media before Trump's decisive Iran strike
Juncker Criticizes EU Inaction on Trump Tariffs
Minnesota Lawmaker Melissa Hortman and Husband Killed in Targeted Attack; Senator John Hoffman and Wife Injured
Wreck of $17 Billion San José Galleon Identified Off Colombia After 300 Years
Sole Survivor of Air India Crash Recounts Escape
Coinbase CEO Warns Bitcoin Could Supplant US Dollar Amid Mounting National Debt
UK and EU Reach Agreement on Gibraltar's Schengen Integration
Israeli Finance Minister Imposes Banking Penalties on Palestinians
U.S. Inflation Rises to 2.4% in May Amid Trade Tensions
Trump's Policies Prompt Decline in Chinese Student Enrollment in U.S.
Global Oceans Near Record Temperatures as CO₂ Levels Climb
Trump Announces U.S.-China Trade Deal Covering Rare Earths
Smuggled U.S. Fuel Funds Mexican Cartels Amid Crackdown
Protests Erupt in Los Angeles with Symbolic Flag Burning
Trump Administration Issues New Travel Ban Targeting 12 Countries
Man Group Mandates Full-Time Office Return for Quantitative Analysts
JPMorgan Warns Analysts Against Accepting Future-Dated Job Offers
Builder.ai Faces Legal Scrutiny Amid Financial Misreporting Allegations
Japan Grapples with Rice Shortage Amid Soaring Prices
Goldman Sachs Reduces Risk Exposure Amid Market Volatility
HSBC Chairman Mark Tucker to Return to AIA as Non-Executive Chair
Israel Confirms Arming Gaza Clan to Counter Hamas Influence
Judge Blocks Trump's Ban on International Students at Harvard
Trump Proposes Travel Ban on 'Uncontrolled' Countries
Panama Port Owner Balances US-China Pressures
Trump Administration Accused of Obstructing Deportation Cases
Trump’s China Strategy Remains a Geopolitical Puzzle
Eurozone Inflation Falls Below ECB Target to 1.9%
Call for a New Chapter in Globalisation Emerges
Blackstone and Rivals Diverge on Private Equity Strategy
Mayor’s Security Officer Implicated | Shocking New Details Emerge in NYC Kidnapping Case
Bangkok Ranked World's Top City for Remote Work in 2025
Denmark Increases Retirement Age to 70, Setting a European Precedent
Netanyahu Accuses Western Leaders of 'Emboldening Hamas'
Escalating Trade Tensions and Market Reactions
OnlyFans Reportedly in Talks for $8 Billion Sale
JBS Gains Shareholder Approval for U.S. Stock Listing
Booz Allen Hamilton to Cut 2,500 Jobs Amid Federal Spending Reductions
Trump Signs Executive Orders to Accelerate Nuclear Energy Development
Harvard Temporarily Blocks Trump Administration's International Student Ban
Nippon Steel Forms Partnership with U.S. Steel, Headquarters to Remain in Pittsburgh
Trump Expands Tariff Threats to Apple and Samsung Devices
Oracle and OpenAI Plan $40 Billion Nvidia Chip Purchase for AI Data Center
Trump Threatens 50% Tariff on EU Goods, Markets React
The Daily Debate: The Fall of the Dollar — Strategic Reset or Economic Self-Destruction?
Former FBI Director James Comey Questioned by Secret Service Over Social Media Post
×