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Bethany Howell's six-year-old daughter Ashlynd pressed her thumb on her mobile phone to open it as she dozed and promptly spent $250 on an app. Picture: Bethany Johnson Howell
BETHANY Howell, like many parents locks her mobile with her thumbprint, and promptly dozed off. She woke to be asked by husband Allan why she had just spent $250 online.
“I said, ‘What are you talking about? I didn’t purchase anything,†Bethany told Buzzfeed News. “We thought we’d been hacked at first.â€
Bethany Howell's husband Allan initially thought she had spent $250 online. Picture: Bethany Johnson HowellSource:Facebook
Then Bethany, from Little Rock, the capital city of Arkansas, recalled that she had been watching a film on the television with her six-year-old daughter Ashlynd when she dozed off.
And the 13 online purchases from Amazon were all for Pokémon toys — her daughter’s latest craze.
Ashlynd Howell, aged six, is obsessed with Pokémon toys. Picture: Bethany Johnson HowellSource:Facebook
Ashlynd's mum Bethany could only get Amazon to return four of the 13 Pokémon toys that she surreptitiously bought. Picture: Bethany Howell JohnsonSource:Facebook
“From there, I was like, ‘Well if you didn’t shop, and I didn’t shop, there’s only one other person in the house that could have done this.’â€
The next morning Bethany asked her daughter if she had bought the items and how did she do it.
“She said, ‘Yeah mummy! I was shopping. But don’t worry, all of it is going to come straight to the house,’†Bethany told the Wall Street Journal.
“Then I asked her, ‘How’d you get into my phone? Did you remember my code?’†Howell said. “And she said ‘No, I used your thumb.’â€
Yes, her six-year-old daughter pressed her thumb against the mobile to open it as her mum slept.
The parents had no idea that Ashlynd even knew what Amazon was and tried to cancel the order. Amazon only agreed to withdraw the purchase of four of the 13 items.
Bethany did not help the situation by having the Amazon app set up for password-free ordering on her mobile.
But it does show that with today’s children, even as young as six, you have to sleep with one eye open and your mobile tucked under your pillow and to have all apps accessible only with a password.