So here is another article I was reading on HuffPost: Amazon Sued For Making it Way to Easy For Kids to Spend Money. I compare this to the stories I used to read and hear about people suing McDonald’s because they got fat eating there. Fuck Me!! It’s the PARENTS responsibility to know what the fuck their kids are up to. (And sorry to all the underage guys that read my blog, LOL. Be responsible, damn it!!)
Cell phones have been around for 30 years according to Mashable.com. Of course I don’t know anyone that was willing to put out $4,000 to buy it. If I was going to buy one at that price it better be solid gold. Verizon Wireless started back in 2000. So cell phones have been around for a few years. Yea, since the start of iPhone and then Android, the cell phones have gotten in deep with applications and games, and what not. But tell me this: who the hell is dumb enough to give a kid a cell phone like that? (again sorry to all the underagers out there).
I’m not saying that every kid shouldn’t have a cell phone. There are tons of kids out there that are responsible enough not to do things they shouldn’t. And if they do, to erase the evidence! But it is the parents responsibility to know what they are giving their kids, and what those things can do. I’ve seen kids as young as like 10 or 11 walking around town talking and playing on their cell phone. And I’m talking like iPhones and Galaxy’s. Do they really need that? And of course a kid that age is just going to punch buttons on the game to get more tokens, or armor, or what ever else the game sells, they don’t know any better. I wouldn’t expect them to.
When I was 10 and 11 money was something I didn’t really know to much about. I knew if I did a good job cleaning my room, or taking out the trash, or washing the sink in the bathroom, depending on the foster house I was at, I got a little “allowance”. Most of the time would use that to buy ice cream or candy at this one little store I used to hang out at. Thinking back now, even though I had saved a bunch when I was 13 and ran away I still didn’t have a good concept of what money was. Hell, I’m teaching Nick about it.
Here is a nice quote from the story: According to the complaint, making a purchase while playing a game or using an app was as easy as simply closing a pop-up window that had appeared, which allowed children, sometimes too young to even read, to amass charges on their parents’ accounts. WHAT THE FUCK IS A KID WHO IS TOO YOUNG TO READ EVEN DOING WITH THE PHONE!?!?
Don’t parents send their kids out to play anymore? I was always being run out of the house to go outside. I don’t know if it was more to play or just to get rid of me, but it did the trick. I’d hang out with my friends, I’d get a suntan in the summer. We would go to the pool, or to the park, or just terrorize the town on our bikes. If I was in the house on a nice day, I’d get my butt whacked. And now kids are just sitting at home playing video games on phones and racking up charges, and somehow that is Amazon’s fault? I don’t think so.
I’m an adult now. If I gave Nick a smartphone and didn’t protect it from him running up charges I’d be responsible for that. Just the same as if I let him eat pizza and McDonald’s all day, every day, and he got fat, or sick, I’d be responsible for that too. Everyone wants to lay the blame for all the crap in their life on someone else. Well, yea, I did it too for a LONG time, but I finally got over it.
Most people are oblivious to what they are doing. The store I work in wants people to apply for credit cards. When people apply that thing could say they are agreeing to a 250% interest rate and they would accept it without reading it and then complain when they get their bill cause the $80 pair of jeans now cost them $300. I had a good friend in L.A. (not a client btw) that was a mortgage broker that lost his own house in the mess case he said that when people signed for the loan, nobody read the documents. He said that people were taken advantage of like that. But who is ultimately to blame? YOU! Fuckhead!! For not understanding what you were buying and not reading it.
And yea, for all the Terms & Conditions that we click Yes to on the internet, the only one that I’ve actually read is Tumblr’s. Check it out sometime. At least they make theirs a little fun to read. And here is an article that is fun that shows just how dumb people are and what they don’t read: 7500 Online Shoppers Unknowingly Sold Their Soluls. The store is called GameStation in the U.K., and here is what they put in their T&C for an April Fools joke:
“By placing an order via this Web site on the first day of the fourth month of the year 2010 Anno Domini, you agree to grant Us a non transferable option to claim, for now and for ever more, your immortal soul. Should We wish to exercise this option, you agree to surrender your immortal soul, and any claim you may have on it, within 5 (five) working days of receiving written notification from gamesation.co.uk or one of its duly authorised minions.”
GameStation’s form also points out that “we reserve the right to serve such notice in 6 (six) foot high letters of fire, however we can accept no liability for any loss or damage caused by such an act. If you a) do not believe you have an immortal soul, b) have already given it to another party, or c) do not wish to grant Us such a license, please click the link below to nullify this sub-clause and proceed with your transaction.”
And 7500 people OK’ed that. LOL. Jokes on you until they come to collect. So do I think that Amazon should be held liable for the purchases that were made by kids on their phones? Nope. If you are going to give a kid a phone like that, then the parent should better know what that phone is capable of and take the protections THEMSELVES to make sure it doesn’t happen. What, are we going to sue Audible because a kid downloaded a 100 books?
Yes, even my friends tell me that they are glad that I’m not their parent. Hey, at least I would be a responsible one. Or one to TAKE responsibility and not lay it off on others. So take away the cell phone, kick the kid outdoors, and you wont have to worry about your checkbook so much. And maybe the kid will have a life too!
As always, Love to you all!!
~Ryan
[Originally Posted 7/10/14]
The DisInformation Protocol 