FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New AI Tool Reads the Terms Nobody Reads — 15 Years After the "Firstborn Child" Experiment Proved Nobody Does

Fair Term launches browser extension that analyses any Terms & Conditions page automatically, before you click "I agree"

LONDON, 25 August 2026 — Fair Term today launched an AI-powered tool that reads Terms & Conditions pages and tells users, in plain English, what they're actually agreeing to. The launch comes fifteen years after a UK retailer proved that almost nobody reads the small print — by hiding a clause in their Wi-Fi terms asking customers to hand over their firstborn child.

In 2010, high-street electronics retailer Maplin, working with consumer group Which?, buried an extraordinary clause in their free Wi-Fi terms and conditions: by connecting, customers agreed to hand over their firstborn child. It was a deliberate experiment. Ninety-eight per cent of people clicked "I agree" without reading a single word.

Fifteen years on, the problem has only grown. The average person now spends over 250 hours a year clicking "I agree" to terms they never read — across social media, streaming services, shopping sites, banking apps, and dozens of other platforms. Hidden inside those terms are auto-renewing subscriptions, surprise fees, broad data-sharing rights, and clauses that quietly strip consumers of their right to complain.

Fair Term was built to close that gap.

"You shouldn't need a law degree or forty spare minutes to know what you're signing," said a Fair Term spokesperson. "We built Fair Term so that the moment you're about to click 'I agree,' you already know what's hiding in the small print — the unfair clauses, the hidden costs, the surprises — in seconds, in plain English."

What makes Fair Term different from other AI tools:

• It works automatically. The browser extension detects when a user is on a sign-up page with a terms checkbox and shows a "What am I signing?" prompt — no copying, no pasting, no effort required.
• It analyses any URL on demand. Users can also paste any terms page URL into the Fair Term website for an instant fairness report — not just a pre-graded list of popular services.
• It scores across eight dimensions of fairness, from data privacy and hidden costs to liability limits, unilateral changes, and dispute resolution — each with a 0–100 score and plain-English explanation.
• It suggests fairer alternatives for every red flag it finds, not just summaries of what's wrong.
• Its methodology is fully public. Every score traces back to specific clauses, with no black-box ratings.

Fair Term is available free as a web app at fair-term.com and as a Chrome browser extension. A Business tier offers bulk analysis, team workspaces, and vendor risk dashboards for organisations that need to screen multiple vendors. An Enterprise tier serves universities, procurement teams, and compliance departments.

### Notes to editors

About Fair Term Fair Term is an AI-powered legal-tech tool that analyses Terms & Conditions pages and produces clear, actionable fairness reports for everyday users. It scores terms across eight dimensions — from data privacy to hidden costs — and flags specific concerning clauses with plain-English explanations and suggested fairer alternatives. Available as a web app and browser extension, with Business and Enterprise tiers for teams, universities, and procurement professionals.

Key statistics

• 99% of people never read the terms they agree to
• The average person spends 250+ hours per year clicking "I agree"
• 76% of terms contain clauses favouring the company over the consumer
• The 2010 "firstborn child" experiment showed 98% of people accepted terms asking for their firstborn child without reading them

Press contact For interviews, quotes, demos, or data requests, visit fair-term.com/contact or fair-term.com/press.

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Fair Term is available at fair-term.com. The Chrome extension is available on the Chrome Web Store.