It's not the first time such an event has occurred, and it won't be the last, either, unless stores ensure they wipe returned smartphones and tablets before putting them back on the shelf.
That's the most likely way the apps got on the device, particularly since the parents bought two of them, one for their 12-year-old and the other for their 15-year-old daughter, and only the 12-year-old, who calls the device her PervPad, had the apps, which were "Boobs! Butts! Babes!" and"Undress Me."
There is quite a bit of technical naivete about what to do, and about the technology involved, in the story, however.
- The local news crew (video report below) got a few things wrong, of course. They called the Coby Kyros "similar to the Apple iPad and Amazon Kindle." Oh, really?
- The father called the manufacturer of the tablet, Coby, instead of simply going back to the store.
- According to the father, Jay Hardin, the TS representative he spoke to told him that they have adult content in their application library as part of "each and every one of these things that they sell." There is no way any TS rep would have told Hardin that unless they were off their meds that day.
- Meanwhile, Coby told the local news station, News 3, that there was no pre-programmed software installed by Coby (meaning the porn wasn't put there during production).
At any rate, Hardin said he is simply going to exchange the PervPad. There's been no squawking about a lawsuit, but if Hardin decides to go legal with this, it would probably be hard to prove that he didn't plant the apps himself. We aren't saying he did, mind you, but authorities are always very cautious about these types of reports, particularly after the Wendy's Chili / Finger incident.
You can watch the local news report below.
