This is What Happens When You Give 300 L.A. High Schoolers iPads
Earlier this year, Apple was awarded a contract with the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) to provide iPads to its students. The tablets would be installed with security software designed to limit the devices' uses to educational applications only. The first iPads arrived in classrooms one week ago.
One week was all it took for the LAUSD to question its decision.
According to the Los Angeles Times, students hacked their district-issued iPads and used them for various personal purposes like downloading apps, surfing the web, listening to music, hanging out on Facebook, and checking Twitter. Students from Theodore Roosevelt High School explained to the Los Angeles Times how simple it was to hack the system: delete their personal profile information.
As a result, LAUSD officials have halted the use of the district's iPads at students' homes until further notice. The school district is considering installing additional security software on the tablets, CBS Los Angeles reported.
Did they really not see this coming?
Give a wooden block to a toddler, and he will examine it, throw it around, and chew on it to see what it can do. Hand a young boy a basketball, and he will sooner or later figure out how to dribble. Buy a girl a doll set, and in no time she will have assembled and created a miniature household. The LAUSD handed out free iPads to thousands of high school students, and expected that they would be used solely for studying purposes, just because of a simple security lock. Really?
I was a high school student just four months ago. I've jailbroken my iPhones, rooted my Android phones, hacked into my MacBook Pro, and broken into my neighbor's "secure" Wi-Fi network. And I was aiming to get more access to features, not to unlock features that I should have already had.
Some of my classmates knew how to design and code applications. A few of them put their creations online, and sold them for money. Others used their knowledge of hardware to modify their computers, TVs, Xbox, and PS3 consoles.
Teenagers are pretty smart these days, LAUSD.
It's hard to believe you didn't see this coming.