They asked for her firstborn child.
She clicked "I agree."
In 2010, a UK retailer hid an extraordinary clause in their Wi-Fi terms and conditions: by connecting, you agreed to hand over your firstborn child. It was a stunt, run with a consumer group, to prove a point. The point was proved — almost nobody noticed. This is exactly why Fair Term exists.
The firstborn clause
A UK retailer buried a clause in their free Wi-Fi terms asking customers to hand over their firstborn child. It was a deliberate test — and the clause was real, sitting in the terms everyone agreed to.
Nobody read it
98% of people clicked "I agree" without reading a single word. The experiment made national headlines — but more than a decade on, most of us still don't read the small print.
It's still happening
Today's terms hide real consequences: auto-renewing subscriptions, surprise fees, data being sold on, your right to complain quietly taken away. You just won't see it until it's too late.
98%
of people accepted terms that asked for their firstborn child — without reading a word. Surveys consistently show only around 8% of us ever read the terms we sign. The rest just click yes and hope for the best.
Fair Term reads it for you
You shouldn't need a law degree or 40 spare minutes to know what you're agreeing to. Paste a link to any terms page, and Fair Term reads the small print in seconds — flagging the unfair clauses, the hidden costs, and the surprises, then giving you a plain-English fairness score before you click "I agree."
- ✓Red flags flagged by severity, with a plain-English explanation of each one.
- ✓Hidden costs surfaced — auto-renewals, free-trial traps, cancellation fees, surprise charges.
- ✓A fairness score out of 100, so you know at a glance whether to trust the terms.
Don't be the 98%
Paste a Terms & Conditions URL and get a full fairness report in seconds — free.