11YO S’porean Boy Stole Reportedly S$4K From Mom For Games & Friends

By
Zhi Hao
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For many, games serve as outlets for them to destress. Cos, you know, the world can get really stressful at times.

But for some, games aren’t just destressing outlets; they’re basically alternate lives.

Players would get so invested in a particular game that they’re more than willing to pump in ludicrous sums of money, even if it meant poverty on their part…

Or even theft.

11YO S’porean Boy Stole S$4K From Mom For Games & Friends

For Linda Wang, 43, the year 2021 is surely a worrying one; And it’s not just because of the pandemic.

Rather, her son will be taking his PSLE this year; a notion that would trigger the stress sensors of any parent.

But what she didn’t know was that the situation was all-set to become a lot worse.

It all began on 12 September 2021, when she realised that her son had ceased asking for his allowance.

As far as primary school students go, not asking, or even pestering, for one’s allowance is an instant red flag.

And so, sensing something was amiss, Wang proceeded to check his schoolbag only to find S$58 in his wallet.

For the record, primary school students are not usually associated with anything upwards of S$50. 

Wang then began an entire interrogation process, which ultimately proved effective. Her son eventually confessed that he has taken the money from her wallet to buy top-up cards for mobile games, as well as spend on his friends.

Wang professed that she was shocked, as her son does not have a phone and can only play mobile games for one to two hours every day.

She heavily suspected that he had been influenced by his friends, and stated that her son had topped up in exponential amounts, first injecting tens of dollars into games before upping to more than S$100. On one occasion, he topped up more than S$600 at one go.

Between July and September 2021, her son “invested” more than S$3,000 into mobile games, and spent S$500 on his friends.

Tough Times

Considering these are tumultuous times, the theft hit especially hard for the family.

Indeed, the stolen sum of money was said to constitute one to two months of their household expenditure.

But the whole incident, as Wang has said, is an “expensive lesson learnt.”

She now watches over her son while he does his revisions, and has sent a warning to other parents in regards to such cases.

More Stringent Gaming Restrictions

Wang has also called for Singapore to implement online gaming restrictions for minors, similar to what China and Japan have done.

Over in China, online gaming for under-18s was cut to an hour on Fridays, weekends and public holidays. Minors cannot play during the school week.

The move follows a previous rendition in 2019 when minors were disallowed from playing video games after 10:00pm. Gaming time was also cut to 90 minutes on weekdays.

Meanwhile, in Japan, several regions have limited playing time for minors to one hour a day. On the weekends, minors could get thirty more minutes of playing time.

The rule, however, was not accompanied by any penalty. It was largely left to the parents to enforce the rule.

Apparently, a Japanese teenager was so tilted by the regulation that he actually started a petition to try and end the new rule.

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Zhi Hao
Email: [email protected]