Got brother punished for buying online?

My little brother is now 11½ years old. He is slowly becoming mature / old enough to understand that certain beautiful things cost money. So I'm offering him Amazon Prime Video for free because I've subscribed to it anyway.

On the PS4, he made an online purchase for virtual money about 2 weeks ago. For this alone he was pissed off by my older brother, as it was at his expense. - According to the motto, he won't notice anyway "(e-mail confirmation)

He has just rented a film for 3 euro at my expense without asking. I just read the email indignantly and then asked him for the money. Since he can't find it and I jumped in in the middle of the film, I warned him first.

Since I can't trust him, I just checked the orders and (lo and behold), he has already borrowed something for 3 euro.

In anger, I've now signed him off Prime so that he can't finish the film until he has paid for it (which stupidly will expire soon, but doesn't bother me)

Is that right on my part or is it exaggerated? You can't repeat your mistakes and then twice… What do you think of that?

P.S. If you borrow something on Prime, you will be asked again after the first click whether you are really sure whether you want to borrow it for xy €. He knew he was making a purchase. - And he also knows that Prime is in my name.

Turning him off prime was a completely right decision. Who knows how much he would have bought / borrowed in the near future.

In my opinion, you did everything right. When talking no longer helps, only actions help.

Reacted correctly. I would not give the account back to him until he learns to pay for it, i.e., give the account back when he has paid the 6 euro, and then block it each time until he pays for the films he is renting

You did the right thing. He has to realize that he can't just spend other people's money like that. 3 euro is just the beginning, at some point it will be 10, then 50 and at some point it will be over 100 euro. But just taking the account away from him is not enough. If I were you, I would talk to him about what he did was wrong and what consequences that could have. He's still 11 and may just not have as much understanding of it as you might think. You shouldn't yell at him or beat him up, but talk to him nicely. I would no longer make the account available to him for the time being. The payments on other platforms can certainly be suppressed somehow, so that he can't just do that without further ado. If he continues to do it on other platforms… Then you just have to block him from doing so first.

I find your reaction fully justified. If you want, you can reactivate him in a few days. Then tell him that you will permanently take that away from him if he does it again.

If he is really mature enough to understand it (age alone doesn't have to mean anything) then explain to him how you feel when he does it.

I would do the same with the PS4.

If you are familiar with it, explain to him the tricks developers use to trick him into spending real money.

With anger and shouting, you often don't get very far with children and young people. But if you explain to them reasonably why that was wrong, so that they understand it, it usually works best. Give him the chance that he can show that he can already act responsibly. This works wonders for many children because they can then feel a little more grown-up.

I can't speak from experience as a father but as someone who had many nieces and nephews at that age.

Thanks for the answer. Really helpful!

OK. I didn't look at it that way.

Tomorrow I will talk to him calmly and enlighten him.

I'm happy if I could help you.