LAUSD kids ‘jailbreak’ iPads

When the Los Angeles Unified School District announced it was giving iPads to its students back in July, I predicted:

“The iPads themselves might allow the kids to break out of the system and find Web sites that teach something original and good. But even if the LAUSD puts restrictions on what the kids can see, no doubt many kids also will find ways to ‘jailbreak’ the restrictions and gain access to pornography, racist sites and other things I don’t want my tax money supporting.”

That just happened:

“More than 300 students at three Los Angeles Unified high schools bypassed security measures to access unauthorized websites on their new district-issued iPads, prompting an immediate ban on taking the tablet computers home, officials said Tuesday.

“The breach was discovered Friday at Westchester High, Roosevelt High in Boyle Heights and the Valley Academy of Arts and Sciences in Granada Hills. Those campuses were among the first to receive the iPads in the first phase of a plan to equip every LAUSD student with one of the $678 tablets.”

But that’s just the first step. Soon, the kids will find a way to jailbreak the iPads in a way the schools can’t figure out.

But already, a key reason for spending our money on the iPads — doing homework and other research outside of school — has been canceled. If the iPads stay in school, it would be more cost-effective to get $200 laptops running Windows.

Or just go back to blackboards and books.