So my kid is 14 and he plays a ton of WoW, no one really plays it at his school but he managed to find a couple people online his age that he likes playing with and they all hang out on Discord and one of the kids he found lives nearby and goes to another school.
I guess one of his friends, we’ll call him Steve, was introduced to some sort of in-game service that lets better players get him loot in raids.
I have my Paypal attached to my son’s account because I had bought him stuff on there before, and I trust my son not to abuse it and he hasn’t for a very long time.
Just a couple days ago I see like over $100 worth of transactions made to my Paypal, and I made a ticket only to find out my kid had bought a ton of WoW tokens with the attached card.
I instantly ground my kid, take away his PC and phone and told him he can’t have it back for a month and he starts crying and telling me that his buddy Steve was the one did it.
Apparently his friend got into the account with my son’s permission and did the whole transaction because my kid was too scared to do it, so he figured if a friend did it that he can feel less guilty about it.
Atm i’m on the way to Steve’s parent’s house with my kid next to me to confront them about the whole situation but I feel bad for punishing my kid if what he’s saying is true.
Did I do the wrong thing here? I feel kind of guilty about grounding my kid if he was being influenced by his buddy.
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Influenced or not, your kid had the opportunity to do the correct thing and say no. He does deserve to be punished. And as you said, he probably wanted to do it himself but had his friend do it to feel less guilty. He knew what he was doing was wrong.
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The thing is that he’s only 14 and gets influenced easily, it should be on Steve’s parents for allowing his kid to let all of this happen.
Sounds like your kid still made a conscious choice. At the end of the day, they are your kid, so it’s not really anyone else’s place to decide how to parent them. 
Punishment is fine. He gave the info to his friend to do it. Should talk to his friend’s parents too.
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I mean this gently, but, please don’t be one of those parents that blame everyone else’s kids when their own kid does wrong.
Everyone else’s kids are not your concern. Teaching your child to say no is.
Edit: Nevermind, OP outed themself as a troll.
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Your kid made a mistake. Punishment is warranted, as well as a frank but friendly discussion about why it was wrong (and dangerous!).
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Your kid facilitated it… “Steve” had no way to do this without Frozenchief Jr’s direct help. They should both be banished to The Maw for whatever time frame seems suitable.
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It’s your kids fault for giving someone else access to his/your funds. Good lesson, I wouldn’t even acknowledge the other kid.
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yeah don’t trust a teenager with a credit card.
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a heads up to the other kids parents cant hurt tho
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No, your son should be punished. He should not have given out your information. Lessons need to be learned.
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No you are doing the right thing. Think of it as a learning exercise for everyone concerned. Your kid gets to learn about money and the internet and you get to learn about raising teenagers.
“Tell me, GD, AITA?”
You need to talk to your kid about why what happened is not ok behavior.
I think the grounding is reasonable.
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No, you didn’t do the wrong thing. Influenced or not it is a teaching moment for him that peer pressure shouldn’t be what controls his actions and that he can’t offload guilt onto another party simply because he didn’t commit the act that he allowed or encouraged another to.
Also a lesson for you to learn that giving a 14 year old unrestricted access to your financial accounts is a bad move.
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They probably knew just as much about it as you did. I’d say you’re doing the right thing and let his friends parents know as well so they can handle it with their kid.
You don’t know how much influence that other kid had on him, could’ve been your sons idea and he was too scared to pull the trigger.
If you got this far in the thread, do not give the OP a serious answer. Let the thread die.
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Way to use your friends! Get the heat put on them!
I am going to have to blame you chief!
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This is where the issue is, right here, that you believe this. I’m always amazed that so many parents think their child will do no wrong. Even if the other kid made the purchase your kid is still at fault because he’s the one who knew the payment option was tied to that account in the first place.
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