YouTube fail: Advertising blunder boy, 12, runs up €100,000 bill with Google

A boy of 12 mistakenly ran up a €100,000 bill with Google thinking he was earning money through an advertising account. Jose Javier hoped to raise cash through adverts playing alongside videos he posted of his band on YouTube. But he did not realise he was getting deeper and deeper into debt with the tech giant after signing up for the Google AdWords service. After the case came to light, Google said it would waive the bill because a 12-year-old could not be liable for the debt. Jose has now been banned from his computer.

My son didn’t know what he was doing. Now he’s famous at school and his mother is on television

Mother Inma Quesada

Jose, from Torrevieja in Spain’s Valencia region, said he wanted to buy instruments for his band, Los Salerosos, when he linked a savings account his parents had set up for him to the AdWords service. But his €2,000 nest egg was quickly eaten away and when the bill climbed towards €20,000 his parents blocked the payments. Later, Google asked for another €78,000. “I didn’t know what my son was up to,” the boy’s mother, Inma Quesada, said. “He thought he was making money and not the opposite. He wanted to buy instruments for the band and things like that, although he did tell his friend that if they got rich they would have a mansion.“

We have analyzed this case and we haven’t received any money from the user. We are going to cancel the outstanding AdWords debt

Google statement