iBook Toting High Schoolers Caught With Porn On Their Portables

by , 2:40 PM EST, December 7th, 2001

News reports have picked up a story saying that some high school students with school-provided iBooks have been caught with porn on their portables. The Associated Press has reported that as many as 60 high school students in Henrico County, VA will be looking at suspension for having pornographic material on their laptops. Earlier this year Enrico County made news when it agreed to purchase an Apple iBook for each student. The school maintains an Internet filtering system, but additional security measures will be implemented when the nearly 12,000 iBooks are returned over the holiday break for a scheduled memory upgrade.

Superintendent Mark A. Edwards explains, "A good corollary is that when a student drives a car recklessly, it's not the car's fault. If a student is reckless with this tool, the student needs to be held accountable."

The news is being covered on some Mac web sites, and Apple has not (at press time) made any public comment. WCBS News Radio 880 AM has picked up the story in the New York City area, an indication that Apple may be need to approach this as a larger PR issue.

The Mac Observer Spin:

Kids will be kids. That doesn't make it OK for these students to have porn on their school laptops, but it's somewhat inevitable. It certainly should not be used as reason to remove laptops from schools (not that anyone is suggesting that), but it should go to show that parents should always be vigilant about what their students are doing. It will be interesting to see what comes of this, but hopefully it will be much ado about nothing.