Hand it to a grandchild, without handing over your letters
Give the tablet to a five-year-old, know they cannot leave the program you opened, and take it back with your post, your photographs and your bank exactly as you left them.
The worry is entirely reasonable, and it is the reason a great many tablets never leave their owner’s hands. Give it to a child and they will press everything, because that is what children are for.
Every tablet made has a setting that pins it to whatever is on the screen. While it is on, nothing else opens. Not your post, not your photographs, not the store. The home button stops working. The only way out is a four-digit number that the child does not have.
Key points
- Lock the tablet to one app, so nothing else on it can be reached
- Set a four-digit number that is the only way out of a locked session
- Circle a Buy button so it stops working for the whole session
- End the lock and find your post, your photographs and your bank untouched
What to remember
- On an iPad this is called Guided Access, under Accessibility. On Android tablets it is App Pinning, under Security. They do the same thing.
- The way out is your four digits and nothing else. That is what lets you hand the tablet over and stop watching it.
- Open the app first, then lock. Locking does not choose the app — it pins whatever is already on the screen.
Try this
Before the grandchildren next come, open Settings and hunt for Guided Access or App Pinning — it is under Accessibility on one kind of tablet and Security on the other. Set the number now, while it is quiet.
Practice: Hand it to a grandchild, without handing over your letters. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.