You open your banking app on a Tuesday morning, coffee in hand, expecting nothing more exciting than your usual balance. And then you see it. A string of small transactions, each one labelled with the name of a game you vaguely recognise because your child has been playing it non-stop for three weeks. Fifty thousand here. Seventy-five thousand there. One alarming charge that is definitely not small.
Your child has been spending money on games, and they did it so quietly and so efficiently that you didn’t notice until it had already happened.
If this scene feels uncomfortably familiar, you are genuinely not alone. Kid spending money on games has become one of the most talked-about parenting frustrations in the digital age, and it catches even the most attentive parents off guard. The good news is that it is entirely preventable, and even if it has already happened, it is absolutely fixable. Let’s walk through this together.
Why Kids Spend Money on Games Without Thinking Twice
Before we get into solutions, it really helps to understand what is actually going on in your child’s head when they tap “confirm purchase” on a game transaction. Because it is almost never about being sneaky or intentionally disobedient. The mechanics at play are far more interesting than that.
Mobile Games Are Specifically Designed to Make Spending Feel Easy and Normal
This is not an accident, and it is not your child’s fault. The entire in-app purchase economy is built around what designers call “friction reduction.” The less a purchase feels like spending real money, the more likely someone is to do it. Games convert real currency into virtual coins, gems, stars, or tokens precisely because fake-looking numbers are psychologically easier to part with than actual rupiah or dollars.
A child who would think very carefully before asking you to buy a Rp50,000 snack at the supermarket will tap a button for 500 gems without blinking, because 500 gems doesn’t look like money. It looks like a game resource. The connection between the tap and the real-world cost is designed to be as blurry as possible.
Young Children Have No Developed Sense of Money’s Value
This is the developmental reality that makes kid spending money on games such a common problem specifically among younger children. A six-year-old simply does not have the cognitive framework to understand that the gems they just bought represent something their parent worked for. They understand “tap button, get thing.” The abstraction of money, labour, bills, and budgets is genuinely beyond where their development is right now.
This is not a character flaw. It is just where they are. And it means that getting angry at them for spending is roughly as useful as getting angry at them for not understanding calculus.
How to Stop Your Kid from Spending Money on Games
Now that we understand the why, let’s talk about the how. These strategies work best when layered together rather than used in isolation, and they work far better when paired with calm, clear conversations rather than punishments and restrictions alone.
Step 1: Remove the Ability to Purchase Without Your Approval
This is the most immediately effective thing you can do, and it takes about five minutes to set up. Both Android and iOS devices have robust parental controls that require a password or biometric confirmation before any in-app purchase can go through.
Here is exactly where to find them:
- On Android: Go to the Google Play Store, tap your profile icon, select Settings, then Family, then Parental Controls. Enable the setting that requires authentication for all purchases.
- On iPhone or iPad: Go to Settings, tap Screen Time, then Content and Privacy Restrictions. Under iTunes and App Store Purchases, set In-App Purchases to “Don’t Allow” or require your Face ID or passcode for every transaction.
Once this is set up, your child physically cannot complete a purchase without you knowing about it. This doesn’t solve the deeper issue of wanting to spend, but it does prevent the damage while you work on the conversation side.
Step 2: Never Save Your Payment Details on a Shared Device
This one sounds obvious but it trips up a remarkable number of parents. If your credit card or e-wallet is saved to a device your child uses, and the device doesn’t require a separate purchase password, you have essentially left the door wide open.
Remove saved payment methods from any device your child has regular access to. Make it a rule that financial credentials live only on your personal device, not on the family tablet or the child’s dedicated phone. This single step prevents the vast majority of accidental or impulsive kid spending on games before it starts.
Step 3: Have the Money Conversation Early and Often
Children cannot make good decisions about money if nobody has ever explained what money actually is and where it comes from. We’d encourage you to start this conversation younger than you might think is appropriate, because children as young as three can begin to understand very basic concepts of earning, saving, and choosing.
Keep it concrete and visual. Show your child what Rp50,000 looks like as a note. Tell them how many meals it can buy. Tell them how long it takes you to earn it. Not to make them feel guilty, but to make the number real and meaningful rather than abstract.
When they ask for in-app purchases, use it as a teaching moment rather than a flat no. “That costs X. Let’s look at what else X can buy and then decide together if this is the best use of it.” You are building financial thinking, not just blocking a transaction.
Step 4: Set a Clear, Agreed Digital Allowance
For older preschool and early school-age children, a small digital allowance can be a genuinely powerful tool. Rather than a blanket ban on all in-app spending, agree on a monthly or weekly budget for game purchases. It might be Rp20,000 or Rp50,000, whatever feels appropriate for your family. The amount matters less than the framework.
When the budget is gone, it is gone until next month. No exceptions, no negotiations, no advances. This teaches your child to prioritise, to plan, and to experience the entirely natural and healthy feeling of running out of something you enjoy. These are financial muscles that will serve them for life.
Step 5: Explore Why the Spending Is Happening
Sometimes a child spending money on games is a surface behaviour with a deeper cause underneath it. Children who are bored, lonely, understimulated, or seeking social status through in-game items are telling you something important about what they need more of in their real-world lives.
Ask curious questions rather than accusatory ones. “What do you get when you buy those gems? What does it let you do in the game? Do your friends have them too?” The answers often reveal whether this is impulsive fun spending or something that points toward a need you can meet more directly.
Children who have rich, engaging, face-to-face social lives and plenty of real-world stimulation are significantly less likely to spend heavily on digital rewards. They simply have less emotional need to.
Build Healthy Habits From the Ground Up
The habits around money, impulse control, decision-making, and understanding consequences don’t suddenly appear at age ten. They are built, slowly and steadily, from the very earliest years of a child’s life. Every small conversation, every “let’s think about this before we tap,” every “that’s your allowance, so it’s your choice” is a brick in a foundation that matters enormously.
At Apple Tree Preschool BSD, based in the Educenter BSD Building, we understand that raising a child who makes good decisions is about so much more than academics. Our Singapore curriculum approach builds the whole child, including the social, emotional, and moral development that underpins wise decision-making in every area of life, including one day, their relationship with money and technology.
Whether your little one is in our Toddler programme, Pre-Nursery, Nursery, or heading through our Kindergarten years, every day at Apple Tree is designed to develop children who think, reflect, and choose with intention. Take a look at our full range of classes and programmes and see where your child fits in.
A Little Prevention Goes a Very Long Way
Dealing with a kid spending money on games doesn’t require panic or harsh punishments. It requires clear systems, honest conversations, and the patience to build financial awareness over time. Lock down the payment settings today. Start the money conversation this week. And trust that the habits you build now will shape how your child navigates every financial decision for the rest of their life.
You’ve got this, and we are right here alongside you.
Register now and come grow, play, and learn with us at Apple Tree Preschool BSD! Chat with us on WhatsApp or call us directly at +62 888-1800-900. We would love to welcome your family!
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