Should they also be forbidden from using Linux, Windows, macOS because it allows for the same exploit? Should everyone on the world be limited to iOS and ONLY iOS which is limited to ONLY apps (and soon media content) Apple allows you to use?

You joke, but this is exactly why I recommend Macs or iPads to all of my elderly friends and family. Trying to run Windows safely turns into a level of knowledge that my 75 year old mom isn't able to do.

I don't yet know of a good alternative. I desperately want one because Apple kit is expensive. But for now "$500 for an iPad" is the advice that gets me the fewest calls for support.

My grandma does three things on the Internet: talks to her family on facebook messenger, receives photos in email, and checks her stocks on ameritrade. So yes, with those requirements, she should only use iOS.

Maybe because 99% of the world cannot afford even pre owned apple phones.

Good point. I would say cost is the only reason to not get iOS device.

> I seriously don't understand how people let their aging parents or young children or friends use Android phones.

Your comment is a strawman, anybody can be fooled by these kind of dirty tricks. This isn't about users, this is about what Google is not doing upstream to prevent basic fraud on their platform.

I agree that Google needs to be more responsible but I've never seen an iOS device with ads on the lock screen.

I gave my mum F-Droid, which is a small FOSS app store, and removed the Google Play Store.

Yes, it might, but:

1. There are fewer of these apps.

2. There's less that they can do–on Android apps can do anything and everything once installed.

> "on Android apps can do anything and everything once installed."

Not necessarily. Modern Android devices have granular permissions, just like the iPhone.

https://developer.android.com/training/permissions/requestin...

Unless this has been changed, this only occurs if the app agrees to it, making it entirely pointless. A malicious app needs only to target Android 5 and gets free reign over the phone.

I think that means not using a newer SDK than 5, in which case the feature doesn't exist yet.

This requires that the "aging parents or young children" have a modern Android device, which they often do not. Often, they either have a low-cost outdated phone, or an old hand-me-down; neither of which will be running a new version of Android. Plus, it's not uncommon for people to tap through permissions lists. Android fundamentally allows for a lot more to go wrong than iOS does.