How to Set up and Fix Parental Control on your Child’s iPhone, iPad and iPod?

The current generation of kids are techie, evident with how several toddlers are using tablets to watch nursery rhyme videos and teens texting to communicate. You will also notice that with the current threat of the pandemic, there is less time to go out as children are advised to stay at home.

The pandemic also caused most schools to integrate computers, tablets and smartphones into their curriculum. Parents, who are busy, allow their children to have a mobile phone since it’s a great way to stay in touch with them.

With today’s generation of kids plus the situation brought by the novel coronavirus, the days where children could be found running, cycling and playing in parks are gone. They can now be found surfing the internet either for their homework or for their own entertainment.

While limiting children’s access to the internet could affect their ability to learn and develop, there is still the risk of exposing the children to online threats and content that may go beyond their capacity to handle.

Just like how it is necessary that parents teach their kids to lock all doors, it is important that the parents control what their children can access on their mobile devices.

It is important that the parents control what their children can access on their mobile devices. (Photo credit: ting.com)

The following are the reasons why you, as a parent, should set up parental control on iPhone and all other devices of your child/children.

• Help monitor your kid’s devices. Are you worried about problematic conversations or activities? You can keep tabs on your children’s iPhones, iPads and other devices while they are learning how to navigate and make friends online.
  Your children’s devices have a Screen Time feature you can use or you can also download parental control apps from the App Store that can help you monitor emails, social media profiles, texts, and other mobile functions.
  It’s recommended that you let your kids know when you are monitoring their devices. That’s because you will need your kid’s account information, including passwords, for some of the features.
• Allow you to manage what your kids find on search engines. Access to infinite content may be inappropriate for some children. Parental controls like Google’s SafeSearch can help you block adult content and explicit images, videos, and websites from search results.
• Can block certain features of games your kids can access. Features that allow internet access to gaming consoles can make the games more fun. But the thing is, your child might use your credit cards that are connected to the account, or talk with strangers.
  You can set up a user profile where your kids can only access certain features using parental controls. It also allows you to monitor what they are doing while using the game.
• Allow you to track your kid’s location. Do you want to track your kid’s location? The GPS apps can help you, especially in emergencies. Just make sure your phone is turned on for the GPS tracking or location feature to work.

How to set parental controls on our kid’s iPhone, iPad and iPod?

Like computers, you can set up parental controls on iPad, iPod, and even second hand iPhone over here. The parental controls let you specify exactly what your kids can and can’t do with their devices.

You can also restrict the amount of time they use the smartphone and other devices, which apps they can use, whether they can make purchases in iTunes and the App Store, turn the phone off during certain times, among others.

The following are the steps on how to limit screen time on iPhone, how to block a specific app on iPhone as well as how you can remotely lock child’s iPhone:

• Downtime. This feature is best used for a regular span of time. It stops the device use during a set block of time. You can adjust that chunk of time on various days but its probably most easily applied to bedtime.
  Here’s how you set up Downtime:
  1. Tap Downtime.
  2. Set a start and end time. Your child will get a reminder five minutes before Downtime starts.
  3. Toggle on Block at Downtime.

The parental controls let you specify exactly what your kids can and can’t do with their devices. (Photo credit: tapsmart.com)

• Screen Time. Screen Time lets you block or limit apps and control your kid’s contacts. It also gives you an idea of how your kid is using the iPhone and stops them from making changes to the settings.
  Here’s how to set up Screen Time and set Content & Privacy Restrictions:
  1. Go to Settings and tap Screen Time.
  2. Tap Continue. Then, choose “This is My [Device]” or “This is My Child’s [Device].”
  If you are setting it up on your device and want to prevent another family member from changing the settings, tap Use Screen Time Passcode to create a passcode. Re-enter the passcode to confirm.
  However, if you are setting up Screen Time on your child’s device, just follow the prompts until you get to Parent Passcode and enter a passcode. Then, re-enter the passcode to confirm.
  3. Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions and if asked, enter your passcode. Then, turn on Content & Privacy.

If you want to prevent your child from being able to install or delete apps, or make in-app purchases, here’s what you should do:
1. Go to Settings and tap Screen Time.
2. Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions, and if asked, enter your passcode.
3. Tap iTunes & App Store Purchases.
4. After that, choose a setting and set to Don’t Allow.
If you want to restrict the use of built-in apps or features, you can turn off an app or feature. Don’t worry, it won’t delete the app or feature, its just temporarily hidden from your Home screen.

Here’s how you can change your Allowed Apps:
1. Go to Settings and tap Screen Time.
2. Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions.
3. Enter your Screen Time passcode.
4. Tap Allowed Apps and select the apps that you want to allow.

Do you want to prevent the playback of music with explicit content, movies or TV shows with specific ratings, and apps that have ratings? Here are the steps how to restrict explicit content and content ratings:
1. Go to Settings and tap Screen Time.
2. Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions. Then, tap Content Restrictions.
3. After that, choose the settings you want for each feature or setting under Allowed Store Content.

The following are the types of content that you can restrict:

• Ratings For. You just need to select the country or region in the ratings section to automatically apply the appropriate content ratings for that region.
• Music, Podcasts and News. This prevents the playback of music, music videos, podcasts, and news containing explicit content.
• Music Profiles. This prevents sharing what you’re listening to with friends and seeing what they’re listening to.
• Movies, TV Shows, and Music Videos. This prevents movies and TV shows with specific ratings and prevents finding and viewing music videos.
• Books and Apps. This prevents content and apps with specific ratings.

You can automatically filter website content to limit access to adult content in Safari and apps on your device. You can also add specific websites to an approved or blocked list. Or you can limit access to only approved websites.

Just follow these steps:

1. First, go to Settings, and tap Screen Time.

2. Tap Content & Privacy Restrictions. Enter your Screen Time passcode.

3. Tap Content Restrictions. Then, tap Web Content.

4. Choose Unrestricted Access, Limit Adult Websites, or Allowed Websites Only.

• App Limits. It lets you customize a bit more around specific time limits for particular apps on certain days. As such, if your child spends a lot of time on Instagram, you can give him or her 30 minutes Monday through Friday and one hour on the weekends.
  Here’s how you can set up App Limits:
  1. Tap Limits and tap Add Limit.
  2. Tap the circle next to the app categories you want to limit. Or you can tap All Apps & Categories.
  3. For a specific app, what you should do is to tap a category to access a drop-down menu of specific apps and websites that fall into that category.
  4. Tap Next. Then, set a time and Customize Days will appear.
  5. Tap Customize Days if you want to set specific limits for certain days.
  6. Tap the name of the category or app to go back one page.
  7. Toggle on Block at End of Limit if you are setting up Screen Time on your child’s device.

While these features and apps are a convenient way to protect your children from the dangers that they can find on the internet, a better solution is still to have conversation with your kids about using devices and media responsibility.