After smarting for a couple of days over the stories about how much smarter kids are in Shanghai (in math and science) than in the USA, we are now regaled with the dangers of preschoolers cracking password protection to buy Smurfberries for an iPhone app game they play.
An AP story today has 13 paragraphs of scariness about toddler “buying sprees in iPhone games” before the reader is told:
Apple defends its system. Spokeswoman Trudy Muller says the password system is adequate and points out that parents can restrict in-app purchases. The parents contacted for the story received refunds from Apple after complaining, and praised the company’s responsiveness.
When one reads what comes next in the article, it is fair to ask, why are oldtime schools instead of devices like iPhones and iPads used to teach little kids their 3Rs. If a 5-year-old can figure out how to go around the password delay to buy his Smurfberries can he not learn his arithmetic in a similar way?
The article continues:
However, there’s reason to believe that the password timeout doesn’t always work.
Andrew Butterworth of Brooklin, Ontario, was well aware of how in-app purchases work and of the password-free period. He was careful to let at least 15 minutes pass after a password entry before letting his 5-year-old son play with his iPod Touch. That didn’t help, once he’d loaded “The Smurfs’ Village.”
“He came to me all proud and said he’d figured out a way to get all these Smurfberries,” Butterworth says. “And as soon as I saw the Smurfberries, I knew that he’d purchased them using my credit card. I was amazed that he’d figured out a way to do it, because I was sure that he would have needed my password.”
There are two habits that need to be changed:
1. The media needs to rethink scaring the public about kids and digital devices.
2. Handschooling needs to be strongly considered as a means to develop the smarts of kids.
