In-Game Purchases, Loot Boxes, and the Pressure to Spend

First, Put the Guardrails in Place

Before asking a younger child to resist every purchase prompt, see what you can control yourself. Gaming devices and accounts commonly provide parental controls that can help parents limit or block in-game spending. Depending on the platform, you may be able to:

• Block purchases
• Require approval before purchases
• Require a password
• Set a spending limit
• Manage the child’s account through family settings

Individual games may provide additional controls.

As your child grows and demonstrates responsibility, you can decide when to give them more independence: Protect → Supervise → Teach → Trust.

Find Out Whether a Game Includes Purchases Before Your Child Starts Playing

A game can be free to download and still contain plenty of opportunities to spend money. Before approving a game, look beyond its initial price. Ask:

• Does it contain in-game purchases?
• Does it sell virtual currency?
• Does it contain randomized purchases?
• Does it use subscriptions or battle passes?
• Can players buy items that affect gameplay?
• Can players purchase cosmetic items?

ESRB rating information can help. Look for “In-Game Purchases” or “In-Game Purchases (Includes Random Items).” The second tells parents that the game includes purchases in which players may not know exactly what they’ll receive beforehand.

That doesn’t automatically tell you whether the game is appropriate for your child. It tells you something important about the environment they’re entering.

Make Virtual Money Feel Like Real Money Again

Virtual currencies can make spending harder to understand. A child may not think, “I’m spending $8.” They think, “I’m spending 1,000 gems.” Or coins. Credits. Points. Tokens. Whatever the game calls them.

Sometimes the conversion isn’t simple. You may have to buy one amount of virtual currency even though the item costs another amount, leaving currency behind. Help your child translate the purchase back into ordinary money. Instead of asking “How many coins does it cost?” ask “How much actual money did those coins cost us?”

Explain Why Games Use Virtual Currency

You don’t need to give your child a lesson in behavioral economics. Just point out what virtual currency does. When something costs $7.49, you immediately recognize it as money. When something costs 850 crystals, the connection isn’t as obvious.

The goal isn’t “Game companies are evil.” It’s “I should understand how the system I’m using affects my decisions.” That’s digital literacy.

Teach Them to Notice Urgency

Games may present offers that disappear soon: “ONLY 3 HOURS LEFT!” “LIMITED TIME!” “EXCLUSIVE!” “LAST CHANCE!” Your child may genuinely worry that if they don’t buy something now, they’ll never get another opportunity. That’s exactly when you want them to slow down.

Create a family rule: Urgency doesn’t cancel our spending rules. If something disappears before your child has time to think about the purchase, let it disappear. That can be uncomfortable. It’s also excellent practice, because children will encounter urgency-based marketing far beyond video games.

A useful family principle: if a game wants you to spend quickly, that’s a reason to slow down.

Talk About the Fear of Missing Out

Sometimes the pressure isn’t coming only from the game. It’s coming from friends: “Everyone bought the battle pass.” “Everyone has this skin.” “My character looks like a beginner.” For children and teenagers, cosmetic items can have social meaning even when they don’t change gameplay.

Avoid dismissing that immediately with “It’s just a stupid outfit.” To your child, it may represent belonging, status, identity or participation in something their friends share. Understanding that doesn’t mean you have to buy it. You can say, “I understand why you want it. Let’s still decide whether it’s worth spending money on.” That separates “Your reason makes sense to me” from “Therefore we should buy it.”

Treat Loot Boxes and Randomized Purchases Differently

There’s an important difference between “Pay $5 and receive this specific item” and “Pay $5 and receive a chance of getting the item you want.” Loot boxes and similar randomized systems can take different forms: mystery packs, prize wheels, randomized characters, card packs, treasure chests or other chance-based rewards. The names vary.

The important question is: do you know what you’re buying before you spend the money? If not, teach your child to recognize that they’re purchasing a chance, not the desired prize itself.

A child might say, “But I could get the rare character.” Try, “Yes. And what else could you get?” Then, “If you don’t get the character, will you want to pay again?” That second question matters.

Don’t Let “Almost” Become a Reason to Keep Spending

Random rewards can create a powerful thought: “I’ve already spent this much. I can’t stop now.” Help your child challenge it. Money already spent doesn’t make the next purchase more worthwhile. If your child spends $10 without getting the desired item, spending another $10 doesn’t recover the first $10.

Ask: “If you were starting from zero right now, would you still want to spend this next amount?” That’s a useful question well beyond gaming.

Create a Waiting Rule

Children don’t need to make every spending decision while the purchase screen is glowing in front of them. Create some distance. Your family might decide that nonessential gaming purchases wait 24 hours. Or perhaps younger children simply ask a parent before every purchase. The exact rule can vary by age.

The principle is: wanting something immediately doesn’t require deciding immediately. After waiting, your child may still want it, and that’s okay. Now they’re making a decision rather than reacting to an impulse.

Consider a Gaming Budget

As children get older, an allowance or gaming budget can be more educational than simply saying yes or no to every request. For example: “You have $15 of gaming money this month. You decide how to use it.” Now the child has choices. One cosmetic item? A battle pass? Save the money? Spend some now and keep some?

Once the budget is gone, it’s gone. Resist automatically replenishing it because a new limited-time item appeared. The constraint is part of the lesson. A budget turns “Will my parents buy this for me?” into “Is this worth using my money on?” That’s a much more useful question.

Let Children Experience Small Regrets

Suppose your child spends most of their gaming budget on something and regrets it two days later. You may be tempted to rescue them. Try not to. A small disappointing purchase can teach something valuable: “I wish I’d waited.” That’s a relatively inexpensive lesson when a child is young.

You can talk about it without shaming them: “What do you wish you’d done differently?” “What will you do next time?” Maybe they create their own rule, such as “I’m going to wait a day before buying skins.” Now the lesson belongs to them.

Watch How the Game Frames Spending

Occasionally sit beside your child when they’re playing and pay attention to how purchases are presented. Ask, “What is the game trying to get you to buy?” Then, “How is it trying to make you want it?” Maybe the item is:

• Available for a limited time
• Displayed prominently after a loss
• Connected to a favorite character
• Being used by other players
• Offered as part of a bundle
• Discounted from a larger price
• Locked behind progression
• Presented through virtual currency
• Randomized so the desired reward isn’t guaranteed

Don’t turn this into a lecture. Make it a game of noticing. Your child is learning to recognize persuasion while it’s happening.

Don’t Shame Children for Being Persuaded

These systems are designed to attract attention and encourage spending. If your child falls for one, avoid “I can’t believe you wasted money on that.” Try “What made it feel worth buying at the time?” That’s a much more interesting question. Maybe the answer is:

• “My friends had it.”
• “It was disappearing tonight.”
• “I thought I’d get the rare one.”
• “It looked cheaper because I already had some coins.”

Now you have something to teach. The goal isn’t raising a child who is somehow immune to marketing. It’s raising one who increasingly recognizes, “Something is trying to influence my decision.”

Make Spending Rules Before the Request Appears

It’s much harder to create a thoughtful rule while your child is pleading for something that’s available for the next 47 minutes. Decide your family’s expectations in advance.

Our In-Game Spending Rules

1. Parents control purchasing access while children need that protection. We use parental controls, passwords and spending settings appropriate to the child’s age.
2. Virtual money is still money. Before buying, we translate coins, gems or credits back into real dollars.
3. Random means random. If we don’t know what we’ll receive, we’re paying for a chance, not buying the thing we hope to get.
4. Urgency means slow down. A countdown timer doesn’t override our family rules.
5. We don’t chase what we’ve already spent. A disappointing purchase isn’t a reason to keep spending.
6. Older children can practice budgeting. More independence comes with responsibility for the choices they make.
7. We can enjoy games without buying everything they offer.

Keep the rules simple enough to use when the purchase screen actually appears.

Remember What You’re Really Teaching

You could block every purchase and stop there. For a young child, blocking purchases may be exactly the right starting point. But eventually your child will have their own money and their own accounts, and games won’t be the only places asking them to spend. They’ll encounter limited-time offers, subscriptions, influencers, flash sales, buy-now-pay-later offers, personalized advertising, things their friends have, and things designed to make waiting difficult.

So gaming gives parents an opportunity to teach something much bigger than “Don’t waste money on skins.” It can teach “Notice what is influencing you before you decide what something is worth.”