LA students override iPad restrictions, threaten program

Students of the Hondsrug college use Ipa

As usual, the actions of a few are why the rest of us can’t have anything nice… The Los Angeles Unified School District recently began rolling out a plan that would eventually provide iPads to every student in the LAUSD. However, within a week of handing out the first units, 300 students had figured out how to bypass school district restrictions that blocked sites including YouTube and Facebook.

The district has now put an end to home use of the devices, and district sources say the misbehavior may delay the rollout of the full program. The restrictions were put into place to keep students from accessing a number of sites and services, including Pandora and Twitter. Those restrictions — tied to a student profile on the iPad — were also in place for off-campus use, which led to student complaints.

To work around the restrictions, some students deleted their personal profiles. This bypass quickly spread to other students through casual conversation and social media. Administrators found out about the breach, and suspended home use of the iPads. LAUSD Police Chief Steven Zipperman reportedly suggested to senior staff that the district might want to delay distribution of the iPads elsewhere in the district until a way of keeping restrictions in place is implemented.

Note: A video that was embedded in this post has been removed as it was auto-playing.

LA students override iPad restrictions, threaten program originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 26 Sep 2013 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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