A young boy managed to use the Ebay buy-it-now option to purchase a jet plane online. This serves as a stark reminder that the web is full of surprises and that we need to keep an eye on our kids' use of computers.
A seven-year-old boy in London almost became the owner of a decommissioned military plane. Well technically he did buy the jet, on Ebay, while unattended at the computer. The purchase price was $113,000 and the boy went straight for the "buy it" button. When the boy's father discovered his son's hefty purchase, he contacted the company selling the jet (Jet Art Aviation Limited) and they cancelled the sale right away.
Without knowing whether the jet is operational, I was shocked to learn you can buy fighter jets on Ebay. I guess I'm naïve; apparently you can buy just about anything on Ebay. I suppose 7-year-olds are savvy enough to navigate the online byu and sell, and if that's the case, I'd better be extra diligent about the leaving the computer on and letting my children surf the web unattended. Especially now that I know you can bid on genuine human skulls and other nasty things on Ebay.
I'd be curious to know how long the parents in this case left their son unattended at the computer. Or was it simply a freak accident. Perhaps the father was looking at that particular jet, walked away for a moment, and the boy made the purchase? Or maybe the child is computer and web savvy enough that he knew what he was doing (but didn't fully understand that he'd need to come up with over $113,000 to actually seal the deal).
Either way, we should be extra careful with kids and the Internet. The last thing I need is my children becoming early online consumers. A while back Forbes reported that online sales were a staggering $176 billion a year. It seems we've almost completed the move to a predominantly digital shopping world. By the time my daughters are adults, brick and mortar businesses will be considered vintage or "old school." Everything can be purchased online, including islands, submarine rides to the Titanic, and even a town in Texas.
There is no end to the outrageous and bizarre world of online purchasing, which is why I'm keeping my kids (and myself) as far away from Ebay as possible. It may prevent me from having to spend time tracking down the seller of a castle in Prague, in an attempt to void a less-than-serious bid.
Reply With Quote