In recent times, the excessive use of smartphones has become a norm, even among children. Parents often give in to their young children’s demands of using their smartphones to watch videos and play games. However, one incident involving a 6-year-old boy and his father’s phone has shed light on the dangers of this practice.
The boy, from Chesterfield Township in Metro Detroit, was given his father’s phone by Keith Stonehouse to play games on a Grubhub food delivery app for half an hour before bed. However, instead of playing games, the boy took advantage of the situation and ordered a massive amount of food worth $1000 (approximately INR 82,000) from various restaurants. The boy even went ahead to add a 25% tip on each order.
It wasn’t until the doorbell kept ringing and multiple food deliveries started arriving at the Stonehouse residence that Keith realized what was happening. The food orders included shrimp appetizers from Happy’s restaurant, chicken pita sandwiches from Shawarma, ice cream from Leo’s Coney Island, salads, chilli cheese fries, grape leaves, rice, and more.
Stonehouse described the situation as “something out of a ‘Saturday Night Live’ skit” and was shocked to see his bank account being drained. After the incident gained public attention, Grubhub reached out to the Stonehouse family and offered them a $1,000 gift card as compensation.
This incident serves as a warning to parents to be mindful of their children’s smartphone usage and to have proper parental controls in place. It also highlights the need for companies to consider implementing additional security measures to prevent such incidents from happening in the future.