They have apps for his age that teach him letters, numbers, to read, do math, about science, history, almost any subject he can learn on apps. Also some tell stories and play simple games he can do. Chanes are she had some of them on it.
Ofcourse they have apps but without adult supervision opening these apps the child will have free choice of what to do. The child could easily fick shit up opening the internet etc.
I doubt the kid was unsupervised but you can even make the tablet open only certain apps I know because I sometimes teach in a preschool class and they have tablets that have kid locks on them so the kids can only access the parts they are supposed to. Also my husband is a IT as well and we did this to our own tablet after I told him about what the school does. This is just a parent thinking it is funny to see him struggle. It is really cute the faces he makes but you saying he has no right to technology is just silly just like handing a kid a book with some words and pictures will encourage him to read hand him a tablet will encourage him to learn about computers and/or other things.
Poor guy, give him the passcode lol