A bug allowed kids to visit x-rated sites. Apple took three years to fix it.

livemint.com:

My son’s iPad is set to restrict him from visiting most websites. And yet I was able to use it to access the most X-rated parts of the internet. Porn, violent images, illicit drugs.

I could see it all by typing a special string of characters into the Safari browser’s address bar. The parental controls I had set via Apple’s Screen Time? Useless. Security researchers reported this particular software bug to Apple multiple times over the past three years with no luck.

After I contacted Apple about the problem, the company said it would release a fix in the next software update. The bug is a bad one, allowing users to easily circumvent web restrictions, although it doesn’t appear to have been well-known or widely exploited. Parents who read this aren’t surprised.

Apple’s Screen Time has seen more bugs than a soda spill on a summer’s day. Many report that the app time restrictions they set for kids—say, one hour for YouTube—don’t work. Last year Apple told my colleague Julie Jargon that it fixed a bug where kids could use their devices even during preset Downtime hours.

When my son requests to download a new app, I often don’t get a notification, and the Screen Time interface doesn’t always accurately show how much my kids or I are using our devices. The system meant to protect Apple’s youngest users feels like an afterthought. Apple says that isn’t the case.