Parental Control glitch gives kids access to App Store porn


iPhone OS 3.x brought beefed-up parental controls, giving parents finer-grained control over what applications their kids could purchase based on four standard age ratings. Educator and developer Fraser Speirs has discovered, however, that access is only restricted for purchasing, not browsing in the App Store, which is a real problem in school environments, reports Ars Technica. The glitch has become a huge headache for Speirs’ school in Greenock, Scotland, which plans to roll out iPod touches to every one of its 100 students next fall. “There are tons of great, simple maths games for early years, and I can distribute PDF notes that can be stored on the devices,” Speirs said. The problem is that even though Parental Controls will limit purchases for restricted apps, it does nothing to restrict browsing restricted apps via iTunes. Just accessing the “Lifestyle” category, for instance, will list dozens of “Amateur Swimsuit” apps, as well as “A Hidden Cam Thong.” iTunes will happily display the product page and screenshots for apps such as “Movie of Sexy Japanese Girl,” “Amateur Sohot Queens,” or “Epic Boobs,” replete with graphic text descriptions and screen shots. Speirs already has proxy filters in place to block questionable content while students browse the web. But filtering the App Store is impossible using those methods. So far, the only solution is to cut off access to the App Store altogether. Naturally, there are some downsides to doing so…

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