I'm the begetter of a very curious ix-year-old daughter. As such, it'due south a headache trying to make sure she doesn't accidentally Google something that'southward a little besides mature for her eyes. She currently uses an iPad Air 2 as her primary device and I discovered a while ago that iOS has some pretty good parental controls. There's too a third party app that I use as an boosted layer of security. Allow me to share what I've learned:

Native iOS controls

Even without using third party software, iOS has a surprising amount of controls that might but do the flim-flam if you're trying to salvage money. Under Settings > Full general > Restrictions, you tin can place controls on almost every aspect of the device.

You tin allow/disallow Safari, FaceTime, Photographic camera, and even Siri (useful to avoid hearing your children yell at their device all day).

Not only can y'all control if your children can download media or apps, but yous can prevent them from uninstalling apps period (I'm sure kids would much rather have Netflix than educational apps). If yous practise allow them to download media and apps, you tin restrict which content they tin download depending on the ratings.

If you limit your kids to just Safari, you tin can limit which websites they go to. You can either allow all websites, restrict adult content, or but permit them to go to specific websites. Speaking from experience, the last option is CRUCIAL if yous take younger children. Even if you limit adult content, certain pictures or websites do slip through the cracks.

I useful tool to monitor the apps your kid download is to simply require them to ask. The Family Sharing feature allows you to force your children to require permission to download paid and free content. 1 caveat though, this only applies to new content, not ones they've previously downloaded on their device.

OurPact

While Apple has done well to include some powerful restrictions on iPhone and iPad devices, many parents will simply want a trivial more than command. For example, iOS does not have any way to gear up time limits nor restrict apps individually. That'due south where third-party software comes in. OurPact is a parental control app that allows y'all to set time limits for your children's devices. Subscribing to the premium tier adds the ability to restrict apps individually every bit well equally texting.

As you can see below, you are able to set schedules on what times your kid can use their device. You lot also have the option of simply blocking or allowing access until you say so or for a set fourth dimension flow (ie. 15 minutes). Hearing my daughter yell out "Hey!" in disbelief when all her apps disappear from her iPad never fails to put a grin on my face.

OurPact also supports multiple kids and multiple devices per kid. The pricing tier simply depends on which features you want forth with the number of devices you want to control. In my opinion, "splurging" for the $v/month premium tier is worth every penny to be able to control individual apps.

Unfortunately, enabling the premium features is not as unproblematic as but paying for premium. OurPact requires a series of steps that include backing up the iPad, downloading and installing the OurPact utility, and so restoring the backup. The steps aren't necessarily hard, just they tin can accept a while depending on how much stuff is on your child'south device (my girl had at least 20GB of videos alone).

The OurPact utility is what actually provides the premium features. I suspect that because of the way iOS is architected, this utility program is the only mode to allow granular control of each application.

One time that is done, all the same, enabling command of the device is only a matter of going to pair.ourpact.com on Safari, signing into your account, and installing the mobile device management certificate. Once installed, the device should show up in the OurPact app on your ain device.

Hopefully, this article was informative to my boyfriend parents out there. At that place are other parental control services out there but the built in iOS controls combined with OurPact's granularity (and relatively low toll) provide the maximum amount of control in my stance.

5 days, 5 killer tech tips is a TechSpot monthly feature

This week we're publishing 5 killer tech tips for iPhone and iOS users.

  • 24-hour interval one: How to Squeeze the Virtually Out of Your iPhone's Bombardment
  • Day 2: How to Easily Make iPhone Ringtones Using Only iTunes
  • Twenty-four hours 3: Hidden Siri Commands and Responses You Do Not Know Of
  • Solar day four: How to Mass Delete Messages in iPhone's Postal service App
  • 24-hour interval v: Parental Controls: How to Lock Down Your Kids' iOS Devices