Friends: did you realize that our children are being cruelly deceived by smartphone applications? In a preview of a segment that I’m sure we’ll be seeing on some late network newscast in the near future, the Post reports on an eight-year-old Rockville girl who racked up $1,400 in charges by purchasing add-ons inside an iPhone game:

The Rockville second-grader didn’t realize the Smurfberries she was buying on the popular game by Capcom Interactive were real purchases, much like buying a pair of shoes from Zappos or movie tickets from Fandango. After all, lots of children’s games require virtual payments of pretend coins, treasure chests and gold to advance to levels.

But like a growing number of parents, Madison’s mom, Stephanie Kay, was shocked to find very real charges from iTunes show up in her e-mail box days later.

“I thought the app preyed on children,” she said. “Note that the Smurf app states it is for ages 4-plus.”

Sigh. If only there were some kind of incredibly easy way that parents of young children could prevent this unstoppable deception! Then — and only then — will our kids be safe from the wicked Smurfberry machine.

If you ask me, the Post is burying the lede in this story, anyway: what kind of eight-year-old needs an iPhone?