Children love few things more than doing the opposite of what they've been told. This is especially the case with forbidden things like eating every bar of chocolate in the kitchen, "decorating" the walls with mom's new lipstick, or, as is increasingly the case in the 21st century, playing with a parent's cell phone or tablet.
Unfortunately, because it's easier than ever to babysit our kids with the odd app, most of them have no idea how much trouble they could cause with our tech. That's why passwords exist. Sure, your kid might be able to fish your phone out of your bag, but it's highly unlikely that they'll know how to unlock it - saving you a lot of trouble.
Well, that's how it should work in theory...
If you happen to be one of the millions of Apple users out there, your device will do a lot more than just deny access to anyone who doesn't know the password. It will become locked after multiple failed attempts.
This was something which one parent had to contend with when he discovered that his three-year-old had locked his iPad for 25 million minutes. To put that into context, that's 48 whole years.
How the child in question managed to do this is a mystery too. Apple's system works by disabling the device for increasingly long periods of time if a person continually enters the wrong password.
This means that with each incorrect attempt, they will have to wait for a longer period to try again. So it's anybody's guess how this kid managed to disable the iPad for quite this long.
Taking to Twitter, the three-year-old's father, US journalist Evan Osnos, shared a picture of the device, which had been locked for precisely 25,536,442 minutes, and the following caption:
"Uh, this looks fake but, alas, it's our iPad today after 3-year-old tried (repeatedly) to unlock. Ideas?"
True to form, the good people of Twitter tried to help Osnos out, but the initial signs were bleak. One user contacted a friend who worked for Apple about the situation, only to get the following reply:
"Nothing they can do - they will never be able to use it again."
It was then suggested that Osnos could connect the device to iTunes before applying Device Firmware Update mode to wipe the iPad. However, the friend was doubtful that even this would get it working again.
Another Twitter user wrote: "Did the 3yr old get his hands on the iPad just as the 12,000,000 minutes from the previous lock expired?"
"I'd say their 52nd birthday present is sorted, but it'll probably fix itself sometime in 2038," joked a third.
Whereas a fourth made the most promising suggestion, writing: "Time travel seems to be your best bet."
While Osnos has yet to provide an update on the situation, I think that we can all agree that, in future, he should keep a safe distance between his three-year-old and technology at all times.
After all, no matter how naughty your kid is, there's something to be said for a tech-free childhood these days. If nothing else, it limits the amount of trouble our little angels can get into!
This article was first published on Craft Factory.