A two-year-old boy in Shanghai reportedly shut down his mum’s iPhone by repeatedly entering the wrong passcode.
The mum said her DS (Mumsnet slang for Darling Son) was allowed to use the phone to watch ‘educational videos’. But she returned home to find that he had entered the wrong password so many times that it locked for 25 million minutes.
‘I couldn’t really wait for 48 years and tell my grandchild it was your father’s mistake,’ the woman said, according to the South China Morning Post.
One Chinese technician said he’d seen phones locked for 80 years. Theoretically, the same thing could happen to your phone if someone spent long enough typing in the wrong password.
Apple’s security system locks the phone in increasing increments of time when the wrong password is entered, starting with a small amount and then quickly growing with each incorrect attempt.
We have also found entries on tech support pages which report the same problem, suggesting there’s a very real chance that your iPhone could be put into a state of suspended animation by a button bashing bambino.
Of course, locking your phone like this isn’t a total nightmare, because all you need to do is erase your phone data and do a factory reset. If you’ve kept a backup of your iPhone (which you can learn how to do by visiting Apple’s support page) there’s no harm done.
The story sparked passionate debate over in China, with parents saying the iMum should not have given the phone to her child and let him play unsupervised. So be careful and make sure you don’t give your phone to any kids. Unless, of course, they’re slightly older and scary-looking. In case we’d heartily advise you to hand over your iPhone if they ask you for it.
