Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

10-year-old barred from selling grandmother on eBay

Brian Farmer,Press Association
Wednesday 30 September 2009 12:41 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.

The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.

Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.

A 10-year-old girl's attempt to "sell" her grandmother was thwarted by regulations on human trafficking.

Zoe Pemberton advertised her grandmother Marion Goodall, 61, of Clacton, Essex, on internet auction site eBay.

The youngster described Mrs Goodall as "annoying" but "cuddly" in her joke listing.

But eBay bosses removed the advertisement because the site does not allow humans to be bought and sold.

"Obviously we have rules about the selling of people," said an eBay spokeswoman.

"We had to take it down but it was quite amusing and there were a number of offers.

"The little girl had described her grandmother as 'annoying' but had gone on to say she liked crosswords and was 'cuddly' and there were quite a few offers."

The spokeswoman added: "The advert was obviously light-hearted and had been done with the full knowledge of grandma - we do get these kind of things from time to time."

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in