iOS Needs Child-Friendly Capabilities

Two kids into parenting, I was amazed when each first picked up an iPhone or iPad and instinctively started swiping, pushing buttons, getting excited when pictures of themselves, cousins showed up, and music magically started playing. Steve Jobs' vision of an intuitive device/OS is real. From the elderly to the newest humans, the devices are incredibly accessible. But for kids, they're too accessible. Scrolling through photos is great. Listening to Elmo songs is fine. But sending texts and emails with gibberish is not. Anyone who has infants/toddlers with access to your devices knows what I'm talking about. The embarrassing phone call to your boss or colleague that starts, "Yeah, my kid was playing with my phone." Embarrassing every time.

So why hasn't Apple--the king of knowing what consumers want--figured out I WANT a kid's playground on my iDevices? What gives? You can do private browsing, sync things across all devices, do all sorts of amazing things, but cannot just allow me to press a button so that only a few apps are "active?" Airplane mode is fine, but that means I'm not connected at all and still doesn't prevent emails from being drafted and then sent unknowingly as soon as I re-connect. And even if that was an option, that's a hack. Apple can do better.

From what I'm told, Android devices already allow this. I'm hoping Apple follows suit quickly. Dealing with kids' curiosity shouldn't be an obstacle. I'm happy to let their imaginations go with iOS, but can't risk the embarrassing conversations.