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Article Mum Shocked Police Can’t Help After Young Son Forced to Provide Credit Card Info

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An eight-year-old boy playing Fortnite was forced to provide mums personal ID.

Young Charlie Pearson sent photos of his mother’s personal information to other gamers, shares Daily Mail.

Charlie’s chats with gamers led to incessant text messages and phone calls, urging the child to send his mother’s credit card information and driver’s license but warning him do to so quietly.

His mum, Krista Kneeland-Pearson, said the game first became a problem for her young son when he unintentionally began to spend a lot of money on ‘V-bucks’, currency in the game that gives players costumes and dance moves.

‘He started spending a lot of money without even realizing what he was doing,’ she said to NBC.

He became so obsessed with playing she limited his screen time but she became concerned when she found his door locked with the lights on in the middle of the night.

‘When I looked into his room my purse was on the floor, actually two purses were on the floor,’ Kneeland-Pearson said.

She realized her son had sent photos of her driver’s license and cards from her wallet.

When she looked at his phone she saw he was bombarded with messages on the game as well as text messages and phone calls from North Carolina.

As for Charlie, he said he felt pressured to share his mom’s information.

‘I really didn’t want to do it. They just kept on telling me to and then I didn’t want them to get mad at me, so I just did it,’ he said.

In one message Charlie was told ‘Remember don’t tell her, she will get mad. Okay?’

[Charlie] said, “He told me that if I showed him this stuff he would give me V-bucks”. Specifically, he was looking for my Visa,’ she said.

Concerned, she filed a police report but authorities said that the investigation into the matter is difficult.

According to the cops, getting someone’s personal information isn’t a crime itself.

‘Unless somebody takes steps to do something with that information, it isn’t a crime to possess it. You just have to educate your kids and let them know that you should never be giving a stranger information about yourself online,’ Lieutenant Bill Gerl said.

As for Charlie, he’s learned from his mistakes.

‘I learned not to do that again,’ adding that he’s done playing Fortnite for a while.

‘It makes me really nervous. What is going to happen with all of my information? On top of that, how scary it is that this guy was able to talk to Charlie into doing something behind my back?’

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  • Im amazed this got as far as it did.
    Firstly…. this kid should not have locks on his bedroom door. That can be dangerous in so many situations. A fire for instance.
    He should have been 100% banned from the internet…. you switch the internet off at night after changing the password and it gets turned on again the next day after dinner for a set period of time.
    He should also have to get a job to pay back the money that he spent.

    Her son did this and im sure he knew it was wrong. She cant be blaming the others and saying its their fault. He should have spoken to her about this before it got this far. The fact he locked his bedroom door shows he knew it was wrong and he was being decietful.

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  • Confiscate devices when you can’t physically supervise the use of them…..including those with YouTube on them. I have seen children change to unsuitable things on YouTube while a parent is distracted for a very short length of time. Some people have actually had YouTube taken off their devices.

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  • Better supervision is a must & restriction to games. All technology should be out in the open, not in bedrooms. It’s not a babysitting tool..!

    Reply

  • I’m so glad my older kids are beyond these games and my youngest is too young to play

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  • I’m really concerned at the number of parents who are so not involved in their kids’ playing Fortnite. I am reading stories every day about the issues associated with this game, whether it’s bullying at school, hiring coaches to be better at Fortnite, hours spent doing nothing but playing this game… Ummm, isn’t there a real problem here?

    Reply

  • Vigilance is important at all times and children should not have access to devices without supervision.

    Reply

  • Who lets their 8yr old play Fortnight, when we all already know this game is quite addictive ? My 8 year old is not going on the computer except for Mathletics or a Homework project.

    Reply

  • Mistake number one is letting the kid have the gaming console in his room. The internet is a dark and scary place and kids need to be visible whilst playing online.

    • I agree – devices and entertainment systems do not belong in bedrooms.

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  • That is awful, and she should take steps o protect herself.

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  • Thats awful that he felt so pressured ! Hes only 8 ! I don’t know how much time he was spending playing the game but its really awful that its come to this !

    Reply

  • This game has caused a lot of grief for a lot of people!

    Reply

  • It’s hard for police to track people that do things like these, especially if they reroute or use prepaid methods. It’s extremely important to monitor children on gaming devices.

    Reply
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