Kids corner: design flaws?

[ManicMeat]

if you have a lockscreen password that will not work.

I did have a lock screen password and it did work as they showed at the wp8 launch. Maybe its a fault with your specific device.

I'm on a Lumia 920 running portico

 

[BobanB]

Please vote here to convince MS to implement different password for kid's corner: A separate (or no) passcode on the kids corner.

(click vote, then 3 votes).

 

[pazces84]

Yeah it's a huge flaw. What is the point of having kids corner enabled if you need to give your kid the password. Kids corner shouldn't require the parents lock screen password.

 

[tk-093]

Yeah it's a huge flaw. What is the point of having kids corner enabled if you need to give your kid the password. Kids corner shouldn't require the parents lock screen password.

Because maybe not everybody wants somebody to grab their phone and launch it without permission? Not everybody uses Kids corner for kids. Some use it as a 2nd start screen. I could put my Facebook app, or 4th & Mayor... anything really... and I want that protected by a password.

Should there be an option to let people turn off their password for Kid's Corner? Maybe. I'd say no though... That provides a huge security hole when you start talking about corporate use. What's stopping somebody from putting some corporate app in kids corner to get around having to enter a device password to access it? Nothing. That's why I'd be shocked if anything ever changes.

 

[HeyCori]

Because maybe not everybody wants somebody to grab their phone and launch it without permission? Not everybody uses Kids corner for kids. Some use it as a 2nd start screen. I could put my Facebook app, or 4th & Mayor... anything really... and I want that protected by a password.

Should there be an option to let people turn off their password for Kid's Corner? Maybe. I'd say no though... That provides a huge security hole when you start talking about corporate use. What's stopping somebody from putting some corporate app in kids corner to get around having to enter a device password to access it? Nothing. That's why I'd be shocked if anything ever changes.

I actually thought about doing the same thing. Putting all my games inside kid's corner for easy access.

 

[DAIMONDY]

That's exactly what ive done. Kids corner is full with games and game related apps. Love the idea of kids corner.

 

[Joe920]

What's stopping somebody from putting some corporate app in kids corner to get around having to enter a device password to access it?

How about the company system admin that sets the policy? It would be nice if the admin could centrally disable pinning of certain apps (mail, calendar, contacts, and any apps that have access to those) while still allowing access to kids corner without a passcode.

 

[TimTim Wong]

please try this: unlock Kid's Corner and lock the phone again; then before the time out, you can only unlock Kid's Corner without the PIN. I.e. unlocking Kid's Corner makes the other one time out.

 

[Aphex2in]

The problem that I have: My kids(under age five) love to accidentally make 'emergency calls' on my phones. Every phone I have owned since said children were born (Blackberries are the worst offenders). I *can't* put a pin on my kids corner, for fear that the 'emergency' option show up when the pin entry becomes available. The emergency call thing is a legal requirement, so I was told by the BB customer support folks, so it can't be removed. As such, I'm riding with no kids corner or no pin until my kids get a bit older.

 

[Lumiamike]

yeahhh i think the lock screen is the least of the problems with kids corner, not sure if everyone has the same but my kids corner has a customise tile.... not exactly brilliant having it there as it gives access to all your photos ... that was not well thought out in my humble opinion

 

[MrGoodSmith]

Thanks for this thread. I thought my phone has a problem when I noticed the Kids Corner was protected with the same password I use on my lock screen, but it turned out to be a flaw indeed. I hope Microsoft fixes that in their future updates. Kids Corner should have no password by default and independent from the main lock screen password.

 

[gcyoung]

It gets worse. My daughter, since you can't just enter Kid's Corner without a password, apparently entered so many password attempts that my phone is now disabled for the next 8605 minutes. I don't know how she managed this, but this is a major design flaw. Apparently the only way to get my phone usable again before the 143.4 hours (!) elapse is to do a hard reset, wiping my phone.

Microsoft, please fix this.

 

[Localhorst86]

ok, even though the thread was already dead, here's my reply:

Kids corner does not require a passcode. When Kids corner is enabled and you're on your regular lockscreen, just swipe left (or to the right depending on how you define it). You're now on your kids corner lockscreen. No matter what your passcode settings normaly are, you can just onlock the screen by swiping up. Congratulations, you're now in the kids corner.

If you lock your phone again, you'll exit Kids corner. Pressing the lock/power button on your phone will now bring you to your REGULAR lockscreen (whether or not your lock timeout was even met, entering kids corner will always lock the regular section of your phone). Swiping up will ask you for your REGULAR passcode, swiping left will bring you to the kids corner again.

About the 8605 Minutes lockscreen lock:

after too many failed attempts the phone will block any unlock attempts for a while and will double that time for every further failed unlock attempt (first, 1 Minute then 2, then 4 etc.). You can not unlock the phone during this time. This is to prevent brute force attacks on the lockscreen.

What you definatelly should not do when this happens is a soft reset. Because a soft reset will reset your phones clock to an earlier date and you will have to wait for the phone to reach the designated "unlock" time which can be days, weeks or even months ahead. That's probably what you (or someone else) did because locking your phone for 143.4 hours would take an equal amount of time.

So all the things you mentioned are not design flaws but a misconception on your end of what the kids corner is. It's not a function to let your child go rampage on your phone, it's a tool to allow controlled access to certain apps for your child, fiance or affair.

 

[Funky Cricket]

wow, she hammered on the phone that long huh, I can see there being a specific lockout time, no long than 24 hours.

And I have no misconception of kids corner. It's flawed. If I have a pin, my kids can't just get to kids corner to play where's my perry. If i'm driving this becomes an issue.
I also can't have call tiles in there so they can call mom/grandma/911 incase I stroke out with them.

 

[Localhorst86]

If I have a pin, my kids can't just get to kids corner to play where's my perry.

Why do people keep saying this? This is not true! If your screen is pinlocked, just swipe left and you'll be at the kids corner.

I also can't have call tiles in there so they can call mom/grandma/911 incase I stroke out with them.

I can see why MS chose to not include call options. That simply can cause costs. But I can see why one would want that, granted MS could have included it as an option (maybe with a warning dialogue when you pin a number to the kids corner. About calling 911: that's actually possible, although it requires 3 steps.


1. When in the kids corner, press the power button to lock the screen.


2. Press the power button again to unlock. You'll see your regular lock screen.


3. Swipe up to bring up your pinlock. Press "Emergency"


Sent from my Lumia 920 using Tapatalk Beta

 

[Myles Dugen]

You are definitely wrong. Swipe right and i need the passcode.

the passcode for main should be separate to kids corner.

the implementation of kids corner is flawed. There is nothing else to say.

 

[Funky Cricket]

Why do people keep saying this? This is not true! If your screen is pinlocked, just swipe left and you'll be at the kids corner.

# No, no it does not. If you swipe to Kids Corner, it requests pin. If you pull up pin pad, you can't swipe

I can see why MS chose to not include call options. That simply can cause costs. But I can see why one would want that, granted MS could have included it as an option (maybe with a warning dialogue when you pin a number to the kids corner. About calling 911: that's actually possible, although it requires 3 steps.


1. When in the kids corner, press the power button to lock the screen.


2. Press the power button again to unlock. You'll see your regular lock screen.


3. Swipe up to bring up your pinlock. Press "Emergency"

# Daddies hurt, let me see if I can remember a bunch of crap, or I can click on mommy's picture, or the ambulance picture. Come on, you can swipe to bring up emergency, then you have to dial 911 and press call, it stupid and useless.

There is also not an option to turn off purchases when games are launched from kids corner. Seriously, they need to regulate these in app purchases, it's just a scam at this point.
Sent from my Lumia 920 using Tapatalk Beta