Sadly, Bob Tedeschi, who should know better, missed the big story in his NYT article on Porn and iOS parental controls.
When he wrote that it was "an hour's work" to secure an iOS device I almost snorted coffee out my nose.
This is the article I wrote him:
re: Safeguarding a Child’s Mobile Device From Pornography
Bob, I'm surprised you missed the truck-sized loophole in Apple's iOS Parental Controls. Alas, by missing it you came to precisely the wrong conclusion.
It is not 1 hour's work to secure an iOS device. It is almost impossible.
The loophole is embedded WebKit. Disabling Safari does not disable WebKit.
Almost all free Apps, and many commercial apps, include links that will, when clicked, bring up an embedded WebKit browser. From that browser it is often only a few clicks to anything.
For example, my 15yo showed me how he could use the links on this travel app to bring up wikipedia, and from there Google.
Almost all iAds, and all Google platform ads, use Webkit.
This problem is common in apps that are rated for children.
The solution is simple. Apple should provide an option to block Webkit use as well as Safari use. They haven't done this because they aren't feeling any pressure, and their ad platform is already doing poorly.
I am sorry you missed a golden opportunity to put some pressure on Apple, but I hope in a follow-up article you might mention this.
You can write him too.
Update: I was amazed and impressed to get a personal response to my email - on a Sunday night! He's verified the issue and is now researching it. Wow. I am a fan.
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