Originally Posted by HowlerKarma
What really kind of drives me bonkers about this is that wireless devices are prone to extensive abuse-- but there are e-readers out there that are rugged and NOT wireless.

It's not so much that it's a wireless device (you can do just as much damage wired), as it is the fact that it's a fully-functional tablet PC running an operating system designed for phones. It was intended to be a personal device, meaning it has one user, the owner. The idea of provisioning permissions never entered the design.

Nobody at Cupertino will tell you it's a bad idea to hand kids raised in the digital age a device that they can reconfigure or factory reset, because there's too much money in it for them to pretend it's the right tool for the job.