These days, many people have smartphone addictions. We spend virtually the entire day on our phones, from the moment we wake up until we fall asleep again. In addition to this addiction, smartphone gaming is very common among young people. According to a report in the South China Morning Post, a 13-year-old girl from China’s Henan Province became reliant on mobile games that she used her mother’s account to spend 449,500 yuan on online gaming. Until the girl’s teacher informed the mother, she was unaware of the situation.

The 13-year-old girl, a secondary school student, used to spend the most of her time on her phone. The girl’s behaviour was observed by the school’s teacher, who assumed that the girl had a gaming addiction. She then informed her mother about her daughter over the phone. Her mother was shocked after checking her account. She noticed that her bank only had a small amount of yuan remaining. She looked right away at the bank statement, which showed that her daughter was dependent on pay-to-play games and had made all the purchases to play online games.

The girl confirmed it when her father questioned her about spending money on internet gaming. Later, it was discovered that she had spent more than Rs 15 lakh on the game. The girl admitted that she didn’t have a lot of financial knowledge. She simply connected her debit card—which she had—to her mobile phone. It was his mother’s card. One day, her mother gave her the password in case she ever needed it in an emergency.

She acknowledged that she had previously purchased games for 10 of her classmates in addition to herself. She added that she was too afraid to contact her teachers for assistance after realising her error. People are astonished after hearing about the occurrence, and this story has gone viral on social media.