Toddler Plays With Mom’s iPhone and Accidentally Locks It For 47 Years

A toddler in Shanghai, China locked his mother’s iPhone…

…for 47 years.

According to Kankanews.com, the incident happened in January, after the 2-year-old’s mother had allowed him to watch online educational videos on her phone.

The mother, identified by her surname, Lu, said her son repeatedly entered the wrong password while playing with the iPhone.

One day, when Lu returned home to check on her phone, she found that the device had been disabled for 25 million minutes, or approximately 47 years.

The phone’s lock period extends with each incorrectly entered password. Lu does not know how many times her son tried to unlock the phone but, given the lockout’s duration, it must have been a lot!

An Apple Store technician gave Lu two options to fix her iPhone: wait nearly half a century, or do a factory reset. A factory reset would mean wiping all existing data from the iPhone.

Neither option was ideal, but Lu told reporters, “I couldn’t really wait for 47 years and tell my grandchild it was your father’s mistake.” 

Wei Chunlong, the Apple Store technician, said that Lu isn’t the only iPhone user to have found herself in this situation. Some customers have been locked out of their phones for the equivalent of 80 years or more!

In China, Lu’s story has stirred up a debate about whether unsupervised children should be allowed to play with phones. Some people have suggested that Lu back up her phone data on a separate device, to avoid future lockout problems.

Apple iPhones lockouts are meant to prevent bad actors from hacking and accessing personal information, but in some cases that “bad actor” is just a little boy who wants to watch his videos!