--- description: Signed agreement that included a "Herod Clause," in experiment designed to show dangers of unguarded Wi-Fi hotspots title: Free Wi-Fi for Your Kids: Londoners Give Up First Born for Web Access image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Tech](/tag/time-section-tech/) ## Tech Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Londoners Unwittingly Exchange First Born Children For Free Wi-Fi  by [Naina Bajekal](/author/naina-bajekal/)  ## Naina Bajekal Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Bajekal was executive editor and international editor at TIME. Sep 29, 2014 2:43 PM CUT  by [Naina Bajekal](/author/naina-bajekal/)  ## Naina Bajekal Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Bajekal was executive editor and international editor at TIME. Sep 29, 2014 2:43 PM CUT Not reading the small print could mean big problems, as a handful of Londoners who accidentally signed away their first born children in exchange for access to free Wi-Fi recently found out. An experiment organized by the Cyber Security Research Institute was conducted in some of the busiest neighborhoods in London and intended to highlight the major risks associated with public Wi-Fi networks. In June, researchers set up a Wi-Fi hotspot that promised network access to users who agreed to a set of terms and conditions. These included a “Herod Clause” offering free Wi-Fi if the user agreed to hand over their eldest child “for the duration of eternity.” The page was disabled after six people signed up. Finnish security firm F-Secure, which sponsored the research, said it had decided not to enforce the clause. “As this is an experiment, we will be returning the children to their parents,” wrote the Finnish company in its report. “While terms and conditions are legally binding, it is contrary to public policy to sell children in return for free services, so the clause would not be enforceable in a court of law.” The company urged people to take Wi-Fi security more seriously. Sean Sullivan, security advisor at F-Secure, told _The Guardian_: “People are thinking of Wi-Fi as a place as opposed to an activity…You don’t do unprotected Wi-Fi at home, why are you doing it in public?” _\[_[_The Guardian_](http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/sep/29/londoners-wi-fi-security-herod-clause "undefined")_\]_ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3445092/free-wifi-first-born-children/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3445092/free-wifi-first-born-children/"},"headline":"Londoners Unwittingly Exchange First Born Children For Free Wi-Fi","datePublished":"2014-09-29T14:43:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:03:16.153Z","description":"Signed agreement that included a \"Herod Clause,\" in experiment designed to show dangers of unguarded Wi-Fi hotspots","url":"https://time.com/3445092/free-wifi-first-born-children/","keywords":["Tech","Security","privacy"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Naina Bajekal","jobTitle":"Bajekal was executive editor and international editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/naina-bajekal/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3445092/free-wifi-first-born-children/","name":"Londoners Unwittingly Exchange First Born Children For Free Wi-Fi"}}]}] ```