12-year-old boy steals nearly 10,000 yuan from home to buy CF equipment, Tencent: purchased points cannot be refunded

We have previously reported numerous news stories about minors becoming addicted to online games and causing tragedies, but it seems that such tragedies show no sign of stopping. A 12-year-old son stole nearly 10,000 yuan in cash from home, all of which was used to purchase online game equipment, leaving Mr. and Mrs. Chen, whose family income is only four to five thousand yuan per month, stunned. The Chen couple came to Fuzhou from another region to work. Mr. Chen said he hoped to recover at least a portion of the loss, but Tencent Games, the company that operates the game, stated that game points purchased cannot be refunded.

On Tuesday night this week, Mr. and Mrs. Chen suddenly discovered that almost 10,000 yuan of their total 20,000 yuan in cash was missing. "If it were a thief, it wouldn't have been just half," Mr. Chen said. He then called his son Dongdong (a pseudonym). Under questioning, Dongdong, who is in the fifth grade of elementary school, admitted that he had indeed taken the money.

It turned out that more than 9,000 yuan had been converted by Dongdong into Q coins and used in a game called 'CF CrossFire' to buy equipment. "I logged into my child's account and saw that over 9,000 yuan had basically all been converted into equipment, and over 1,000 yuan was even spent helping classmates buy items," Dongdong said when talking with reporters. He has been playing this game for more than a year, and the reason he stole money to buy equipment was "to own them permanently."

Image Individual equipment costs up to thousands of yuan

Reporters learned that the game 'CF CrossFire' is operated in China by Tencent Games. Logging onto the official website, reporters found that many in-game weapons and equipment must be bought with game points. Some weapons have permanent usage prices close to a thousand yuan, such as a weapon called 'AK47-Fire Kirin,' which costs 88,800 game points for permanent use, equivalent to 888 yuan.

Subsequently, reporters called Tencent Games' customer service hotline but were told that the money had been converted into game points and equipment, and could not be refunded.

Zhuo Wenbin, a lawyer from Fujian Minjun Law Firm, stated that 12-year-old Dongdong is a person with limited civil capacity, and spending nearly 10,000 yuan is inconsistent with his age and intelligence. If Dongdong did indeed steal money to purchase game equipment without his parents' knowledge, the parents have the right to request a refund from the game company.

Xie Weixing, director of the Psychology Teaching and Research Office at Fuzhou No. 8 Center, said that when parents encounter such situations, the most important thing is to make the child understand the seriousness of theft."If money is stolen, it can be made up in other ways, such as compensating by doing chores, so that the child understands taking responsibility for mistakes."