Sarah Needleman

speaker

64 appearances 2 recordings 1 series first heard Dec 2022 last heard Nov 2023

Sarah Needleman’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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WSJ Your Money Briefing · How Online Currency Is Changing the Way Kids Spend Money · 15 Nov 2023 podcast

Some of the parents told me that they did have these painful conversations with children who were very sad because they spent all their virtual currency on one item and then quickly regretted it.

And in the virtual world, there's no such thing as returns.

Here's a little bit of an opportunity, a little taste of making that decision.

And sometimes they make the wrong one and they learn from it.

WSJ Your Money Briefing · Can Videogame Currencies Like ‘Robux’ Teach Kids Financial Skills? · 14 Dec 2022 podcast

Kids spend a lot more time online than older generations, and it's very social.

So when they're decorating their avatar to look a certain way, it's not just for their own personal enjoyment, but it's because they're interacting with their friends.

Correct.

We're talking about virtual currency specific to video games, and it can't be cashed out for real dollars and cents.

And this money is used to buy an outfit for your avatar or a weapon or the opportunity to advance in a game more quickly than you would otherwise.

What you have to keep in mind is that kids spend a lot more time online than older generations, and it's very social.

So when they're decorating their avatar to look a certain way, it's not just for their own personal enjoyment, but it's because they're interacting with their friends, and that's how they interact.

hang out so um sure they may still go to the mall or to the playground but instead of having just a regular phone call they might be chatting with one another in a virtual world like roblox and so they do care about how their character looks and to them it really matters because on a social level they see one another not as we do in the physical world but they see each other's avatars that's how they represent themselves and so it matters in their eyes

A lot of parents do see it as a learning opportunity because in most cases the money isn't dollar for dollar.

So five dollars doesn't necessarily equal five Robux.

So they have to do a little bit of math to figure out what they're getting for their money.

And then they have to do the math of, well, if a certain item costs, say, 300 Robux, I have 500 Robux.

Well, how much will I have left over?

So it's important to them to know what they can afford and not afford.

Or some games will say, you complete this challenge, you will earn a certain amount of virtual currency.

So they have to, again, do the math.

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