{
  "id": 7767331,
  "title": "Devastated father says his 9-year-old son spent $118,000 on YouTube ad campaigns for his Minecraft channel using a company credit card — bill racked up in just three weeks was supposed to be one $20 promotion",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/16/devastated-father-says-his-9-year-old-son-spent-118-000-on-youtube-ad",
  "topic": "tech",
  "section": "Tech",
  "published": "2026-09-16T10:15:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Tom's Hardware",
    "slug": "tom-s-hardware",
    "url": "https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/devastated-father-says-his-9-year-old-son-spent-usd118-000-on-youtube-ad-campaigns-for-his-minecraft-channel-using-a-company-credit-card-bill-racked-up-in-just-three-weeks-was-supposed-to-be-one-usd20-promotion"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "A 9-year-old boy, known as Mighty Mike Plays on YouTube, overspent $118,000 on YouTube ad campaigns for Minecraft and Roblox gameplay videos over a three-week period, according to his father Dave. The father found out about the incident in a video posted to the boy's channel on September 15, in which he explained the situation and showed the mounting advertising charges to his manager, corporate staff, and finance team. The father had mistakenly saved the company credit card to his Google account, which his son also used for various purchases. The father admitted to making the initial purchase of Robux for his son, but he had no idea that his son would later create his own advertising campaigns without any limits. Three of the promoted videos reached around 200,000 views, while the rest garnered significantly fewer views. Following the incident, the family decided to remove saved payment details, add spending caps, and set up parental controls, while also pausing the YouTube channel until proper safeguards are in place.",
  "summary": "A father says his 9-year-old son spent $118,000 of his employer's money on YouTube ads for Minecraft and Roblox videos in three weeks.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}